Textile artist’s dreamy work is tapped by fabric and wallpaper companies
Quiet Tide. Sail Away. Seaside Days. Imagine the Rain. Wandering.
These are the names of the whimsical prints in the “Gathering Joy” cotton collection, images mined from textile artist Meghan Pauley Nespeca’s idyllic childhood and adolescence along the coastline and in the woods of New England.
“I was raised in Massachusetts and spent a lot of my childhood camping in Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire,” she says. “I have such lovely memories of those dreamy summer days by the seaside and that feeling of New England that I love so much.”
Her collaboration with Cotton + Steel Fabrics produced a collection intended for use in apparel and home accessories and décor. Additionally, Nespeca partnered with Anewall, a small, woman-owned wallpaper company, to create wall murals from her textile art.
Though she was not immersed in a particularly arty family, Nespeca was always a maker. She was enamored by vintage fabrics, her grandmother’s quilts, and the textures of nubby woolen sweaters. “I taught myself to sew clothing in high school on my grandmother’s old Singer, and my hands were always busy.”
She came to Western North Carolina by way of Warren Wilson College, where she majored in human studies and global issues and took classes in ceramics, paper making, book making, and photography. Study abroad took her to India, and she returned several times post college. It was there, amid the country’s textile markets, that she found her calling.
Nespeca began that pursuit in a small apartment in Asheville, but for the past 16 years she has lived and worked in the rural countryside near Tryon, a nature-rich landscape from which she has explored multiple expressions and compositions in her evolution as a mixed-media textile maker and fine artist. Her materials include natural fibers, cotton, linen, muslin, repurposed vintage fabrics and paper, and methods that include natural dying with botanicals.
“I love to hand paint the fabric and create more texture through hand stitching, embroidery, and machine stitching,” she says. “I am mostly self taught, and that is really a gift. You’re free to find your own way and make your own style.”
That style came to the attention of interior designers and collectors who commissioned her to make custom pieces — often framed abstracts— for their homes, and opened the door for the brand collaborations with Cotton + Steel and Anewall.
“Anewall approached me about collaborating on a wallpaper collection using my textile artwork,” she recalls. “Not many companies would have such an innovative vision of translating textile artwork into a wall mural.” The finished pieces are photographed and printed onto panels to form the serene installations.
“I’ve seen little how-to videos created by people who have purchased it, and it’s so fun to watch my work go up on their walls. I also love knowing that people use my fabrics to make things themselves in their homes — curtains, tablecloths, clothing, totebags, and little bed quilts. I really think there’s been a resurgence in making, and I’m happy to be part of that.”
Meghan Pauley Nespeca, Tryon, original pieces and commission information at meghanpauleynespeca.com. Also find the artist’s work on ETSY, on anewall.com (“Starry City” mural and “Balloon Ride”mural), and on cottonandsteelfabrics.com.