Good press is always a great thing: many thanks to Canvas Voyager Magazine for the delightful feature on my creative work. You can link to the article here, or read it below!
We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marquin Campbell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Marquin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The most meaningful project I have ever worked on is developing Needlepoint Canvases to sell. I was taught how to Needlepoint over twenty years ago by a great friend. In my years of stitching, I sewed belts, stockings, ornaments, and little pillows. During COVID, my husband and our two young children moved to rural Spain. During that time, I developed my own Needlepoint Canvases. (The Canvas is what stitchers use to stitch up various designs with fibers.) After stitching, I sent them to my finisher in the US and they made the into Ornaments, then professionally photographed, and offered them for sale on my website. The entire process took about three years to execute and lots of planning: but it has been really satisfying to get to the end goal of taking the Needlepoint Canvases to market.
Marquin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am an artist with a BFA in Drawing and Painting from The University of Georgia and a BA in Fashion Studies from Parsons, The New School for Design. All I’ve ever wanted is to create things and being a fine artist satisfies that need to make daily. The areas of my creative work range from Painting and Drawing, to Jewelry Design, to Fiber Arts, to surface design. I also own an online art gallery featuring works on paper from female artists called The Campbell Collective. I’ve found that every area I dabble in serves to help me learn more and more about the creative process and furthers my craft.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When we moved abroad during COVID, I had to really abandon how I worked. I did not sell as much as usual during that time, due to the issue of getting work back and forth from Spain, but that experience really was so helpful to my overall creative process because I realized you have to bake in downtime for creativity to flourish. I was diligent about my studio practice, but lots of the work was not made to sell necessarily (much of it I have retained for my personal collection because my time in Spain really marked what is to me a shift in my art-making.)
After returning from living abroad for 1.5 years, the take away is to go slower, to build in downtime to just think and doodle and exist, and to really want to bring forth quality beautiful craft.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The flexibility and freedom that comes along with being an artist. I like that it has allowed for me to be flexible enough to have a family, to travel, to create things I’m interested in.
Also to see things take life from start to finish: to see people wearing clothes with my patterns on them, or a beautiful home with one of my paintings installed, or to have collector tell me that they got into the traditional craft of needlepoint because of me. It is rewarding to share the images and colors that fill my mind with people, and for them to appreciate those things.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.CAMPBELLCOLLECTIVE.co
- Instagram: @marquincampbell
- Facebook: Marquin Designs
Image Credits
Emily Bolt – https://emilyboltphotography.pixieset.com