TCV3_Profile_MarkMaresca_KathrynFaull

P R OF I L E

MARK MARESCA & KATHRYN FAULL IN CONVERSATION WITH The Urban Electric Co.

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TWO MEMBERS OF A SUPREMELY CREATIVE FAMILY, MARK MARESCA AND KATHRYN

FAULL ARE A FATHER-DAUGHTER DUO WHOSE INDIVIDUAL PURSUITS HAVE IMPACTED THE WORLDS OF DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE. MARK IS A RENOWNED ARCHITECT

WHOSE TALENTS EXTEND TO EVERYTHING FROM INTERIOR CONCEPTS TO PRODUCT DESIGN. KATHRYN IS A GIFTED ARTIST WHOSE MARESCA TEXTILES FABRICS AND

WALLPAPERS ARE INCREASINGLY SOUGHT AFTER BY INTERIOR DESIGNERS. THEIR PROFESSIONAL SUCCESSES ALONE WOULD MAKE THEIR STORY WORTH SHARING...

But it’s only the short version.

MARK MARESCA & KATHRYN FAULL

To us, their story is a more personal one, dating back to the beginning of Urban Electric. Mark designed one of our earliest collections and has remained a constant collaborator ever since. Along the way, he has introduced us to his family—even naming some of his collection in their honor.

As a result of that intimate and ongoing relationship, we have witnessed up close the creative talents that have emerged from the next generation of Marescas. Which is where Kathryn comes in.

IN CONVERSATION WITH The Urban Electric Co.

Though she is now based in Chicago and Mark remains in Charleston, we connected with them over the course of four interviews spread over as many months to gain a deeper insight into this family of creatives and designers we’ve come to know. We plumbed childhood tales and early sources of inspiration, unearthed stories at the heart of their respective approaches to their work, even enlisted Kathryn’s sister (and Mark’s other daughter), Lauren, a fine artist, for the illustrations at right. The result is a portrait of a family whose enduring creative legacy is poised to influence the budding generation yet to come.

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Illustrations by Lauren Maresca.

“I’D BE IN MY FRIENDS’ COOKIE-CUTTER DINING ROOMS AND THEN COME HOME TO OUR PURPLE ONE. BUT EVEN THEN I RECOGNIZED ON SOME LEVEL HOW COOL THAT WAS.” -KATHRYN

MARK MARESCA & KATHRYN FAULL in conversation with UECo.

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athryn: Dad, I remember hearing stories about

point, I always had a room that was beautiful and it

your childhood but tell me more about what you

had to stay beautiful. As a child, I found that really

were like as a child, because I know you were not like

difficult because I wanted to just put crappy posters

everyone else.

of kittens or something on my wall and that was not

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allowed. I could do whatever I wanted in my closet, ark: (laughs) Well, we moved to Greenville,

though, so I had the entire thing wallpapered with

South Carolina, from just outside of Princeton,

posters that I had gotten from a Scholastic catalog at

New Jersey, and my sisters and I were all allowed to

school. That was my way of self-expression, I guess.

decorate our rooms. I did mine dark brown—the entire

So, yeah, it was a little bit harder for me to be original

room. I went to Sherwin-Williams and painted every

in my space as a child (even though, again, it was a

surface dark brown: the ceiling, the walls, the trim,

beautiful environment to grow up in).

the shutters. And my father worked for this carpet company, Bigelow, and I found the same color for the

U ECo : Mark, was that a reflection of wishing

floor. I even had an accent wall, which was all dark

that someone had helped you cultivate your

brown grasscloth. And that room was where every little

room in a better way or a different way? Or once

bit of money I would get would go. I joined this art club

you finally got a taste of the power of design, you

that was advertised in the back of The New York Times,

found it difficult to release those reins?

which would send you this little piece of art every two months for $10 or something, and that started my art wall. I also had an old brass bed that was real sleek

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ark: Well, I was a very precocious child, and when my parents moved to Greenville I actually

looking. I polished it meticulously. I was a very strange

helped them design their first house. I was only a

child in the sense that everything had to be a certain

10-year-old kid, but I would go to the job site every

way. I found a gigantic white ginger jar and made a

day, and I was just mortified at the decisions they were

lampshade out of wreaths. All sorts of things. When my

making—things like the shutters on the house that

sisters would come by the room, they were like, “Uhhh...

weren’t actually operable—and it made me crazy. Like,

what’s going on in there?,” but that was the first

why would you build a house without operable shutters!

environment that I was able to sort of create.

And when I got exposed to all of the details that go into creating a house, I just recognized how wrong it all

So that was my first recollection of a room. Katie, I don’t

was...the hardware, the finishes, all just wrong. So even

know if I allowed you to have your room the way that

in the first house that my wife, Melissa, and I moved

you wanted it…

into—and thankfully she is also a trained architect

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so I have a very like-minded partner—it was very athryn: I think it’s interesting this discussion

important that everything be reflective of what we were

we are having about creativity being something

all about.

that’s innate, and I think that is very obvious in my dad’s childhood. You know, he grew up in an environment where his parents weren’t very interested

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athryn: Which brings me to another story I remember as a child in that home. We had an

in architecture and art, and he figured out a way to

eggplant-colored dining room, which I’m sure was a

incorporate that into his lifestyle anyway, whereas I

custom color, and it was a space I only appreciated in

was raised in an environment that was bursting with

hindsight. As a kid, you want to be just like everyone

creativity. My home was always filled with beautiful

else, and I’d be in all of my friends’ cookie-cutter dining

things and I always had a beautiful room. But, to that

rooms and then come home to our purple one. But even

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then I recognized on some level how cool that was.

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and all over the world, and my parents were able to experience that with me, which opened us all up to

ark: And mom had dyed her hair that color,

new possibilities, new people, new experiences.

remember?

U ECo : How much did you also draw from

athryn: It wasn’t totally intentional. She wanted

watching your parents build their careers as

her hair, which was really short at the time, a bit

you were growing up?

darker and I guess her stylist put some kind of purple tint in it and she came home and was camouflaged in that room and it was really funny. And even though it

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athryn: I think when we moved to Charleston, it was kind of that next step in expanding Dad’s

was totally unintended, it was the kind of punk rock

influence, because Charleston is such a different place.

style that somehow just worked on her.

I mean, right, Dad? How do you feel about how the move affected your business?

One more thing, Dad. I know you and Mom got a kick out of stenciling, which definitely influenced me, both in my work and in just having a general

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ark: Well, I think as far as moving to Charleston, the exposure to such beautiful

understanding that as long as you’re creative and

architecture and details was important. It’s one of

resourceful, you can make your home look unique

the few cities in the United States where you could

without a lot of money. And if you do spend money,

live comfortably and still be informed and inspired

like my parents did on art and textiles, you buy the

by everything you see. And I think that to live in a

one expensive thing that you keep for the rest of your

very old 1800s house, to go through the restoration

life. My sister, Lauren, who is a fine artist, was clearly

process we went through, to have the opportunity

influenced by that, too.

to enjoy what’s good and what’s bad about it and to

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understand that just because something is old doesn’t ark: And Mom was always that way, very, very tuned into what could be beautiful in

the simplest of ways. Like that time we went to this black tie thing and we couldn’t afford to really buy anything. I had this borrowed tux and, well, no one really looks at a man during a black tie event, but...

Melissa thought, “What am I going to wear?” So she

mean it’s well designed, was really impactful.

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athryn: Yeah, it was designed for a different time, a different person. ark: Being able to live in a house with such history makes you think differently and your

made some kind of slip and took an old sari from our

perspective changes, it just does. I think all the houses

collection and wrapped it around her. No jewelry or

that we have lived in have shaped our life in one way

anything, just that sari and her gorgeous dark hair

or another.

and she was the most amazing-looking woman there.

She walked in and people were like, “Oh my god…that woman’s got style!”

U ECo : So, Kathryn, the spirit of all of this great expression was clearly impactful.

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athryn: And for a long time, Dad had his office in the house, and so he was around and even though

Mom stopped working when I was in the second grade, she always had creative projects going on, and so it felt like we were all kind of in business together.

How did you find your own creative voice?

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When I look back to starting my business, one athryn: I think it blossomed for me slowly,

component of that was being able to make my own

through travel and being exposed to cities like

schedule—especially now that I am starting a family

New York and Paris, going to museums, and then it

of my own. My parents worked really hard, but they

sort of crystallized when I went away to college and

were able to be self-sufficient so I never doubted my

had a place of my own to decorate and appreciate. I

own ability to have a career and a family. I know that

was at Yale, meeting people from all over the country

it’s not always going to be easy, but I love the idea of

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integrating my child into my work life, too, having her

is to have that opportunity to share what delights her.

come with me into the office. I hope that I can teach

And I think about our past experiences, when I would

her things there that she will be interested in—and if

be down in my little studio and she would be sitting

she’s not into it, that’s fine, but the idea of having her

at the drawing board right behind me and drawing

in the studio and being engaged in the projects that I

her own picture of what she thought the house should

am doing and teaching her to sew and block print just

be. Later, she would start coloring, and maybe I’d

seems really exciting to me. That prospect of seeing

design a house and make a blueprint of it, and she

how my lifestyle and our family’s lifestyle is reflected

would color it in various colors. And we would be up

in her and how she expresses her creativity is—I’m all

listening to music loud and those sort of experiences

in it for that.

were pretty strong and powerful and very joyful. The

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idea that she will get to see that same sort of light in ark: I think about Katie, and about the

her own children is very satisfying. No, it’s more than

daughter she is expecting and how amazing it

satisfying. It’s everything.

Maresca family foyer.

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THE MARESCAS’ GARDEN T H E B AT T E R Y F R I D AY, O C T O B E R 3 0 , 2 0 2 0 5:52PM