Photo by The Interior Archive/ The Trunk Archive/ Annie Schlechter
Marian in her home studio where she creates her meticulous and fanciful collages.
I have always been very manual, and I like fixing things, doodling, drawing, sketching, and making and gluing things together,” says Marian McEvoy, the former fashion and interiors magazine powerhouse. However, she had never contemplated making such things for anyone but herself and her friends, and she certainly never envisioned making a profession out of it. “Sometimes when you are in a bit of a flux, you should listen to the people around you. They can often enlighten you about where your talents are or your next chapter lies,” she says. In 2016, her friend Jane Stubbs, a purveyor of rare books and prints, encouraged Marian to make some pieces for a Christmas pop-up shop at Eerdmans Fine Art in Greenwich Village. Her unique creations of cork, twigs, acorns, and pinecones formed in shapes such as pyramids, domes, and other elaborate architectural fancies, dubbed corkillage, were well received, and a formal exhibition followed the next year.
Artwork by Marian McEvoy
This collage on a green background includes spirea, petunias, anemones, Queen Anne’s lace, and roses with raspberry leaves.
Jane then introduced Marian to Kate Rheinstein Brodsky, owner of the celebrated interiors shop KRB in New York, and a collaboration developed. “Jane and Kate really gave me my second act and helped me realize I could actually make, market, and sell my work,” Marian says. Soon, she put her high-octane magazine editorial life aside and traded in the city lights of Paris and Manhattan for the Hudson Valley. “I had rented an old farmhouse there for a couple of summers with my best friend, Madison Cox, who is a wonderful garden designer, and I just fell in love with the house and the area,” she says. The farm- house has expansive river views full of inspiration, especially for the botanical collage work she now focuses on for KRB, along with her colored ink drawings. Kate says, “I love the way Marian combines the shapes and textures of different plant materials—a fiddlehead fern with a carnation petal, grape leaves with roses—to create marvelous kaleidoscopic works. In her mind, she can see how all the shapes and pieces are going to look together in the end. It’s quite remarkable.”
Artwork by Marian McEvoy
Mongolian bluebeard and petunias with English walnut leaves form the base of this collage with a yellow background.
Photo by The Interior Archive/ The Trunk Archive/ Annie Schlechter
“There is always something new that catches my eye,” says Marian. “It may be a weird color combination or something I saw on Instagram.”
While Marian’s work is delicate and orchestrated, her garden is anything but. “I’m a terrible gardener, and I hate to cut things back and prune. I basically have a jungle. But I love the fullness and abundance of it. If you give me an ikebana arrangement, I’ll break out in hives!” she laughs. Any plant materials are fair game in her world, but Marian does prefer flowers, leaves, and vines that look like they are moving or dancing. She has a few favorites such as viburnum and allium in all shapes and sizes. Lately, she has been taken with lilies, finding the petal structure and scale compelling.
Marian explains that because every piece must be pressed tightly against UV plexiglass, it is difficult to use thick stems even though she loves them. Some materials are simply too brittle to mount. She is certainly not a purist, and her collages would not be presented in a botany class for examination. “I’ll take a stem from a fiddlehead fern, a leaf from some tree in China that I can’t pronounce, and petals from a lily and put them together.”
Photo by Annie Schlechter
The floral collage over the fireplace at the KRB store mixes bleached monstera and bronzed English walnut leaves with fern leaves, gilded eucalyptus leaves, ranunculus, roses, and spirea.
Marian’s collaboration with KRB has also taken her in different directions as far as color and scale. “I am by nature a red person, but through working with Kate, I’ve learned to love more shades of green. I’ve even embraced purple, lilac, and mauve,” she says. “I also am creating some very large pieces. Kate recently requested a 60 x 40 collage.” In addition, Marian has been toying with cut-out sections of leaves, silver and gold gilding on materials, and bleaching applications. As Kate explains, “The bleached pieces appeal to a different palette and offer another dimension for looking at a collage.”
For KRB’s 10th anniversary, Kate introduced high-quality prints of the artist’s collages. “What I see with the prints is an opportunity for Marian to use materials that won’t behave and lie perfectly flat,” says Kate. “Or she may use quirky, preserved things that would likely crumble when pressed under the UV frame. I think it’s a wonderful avenue to continue to share what she does in a new way.”
Photo by Annie Schlechter
At her home in the Hudson Valley, Marian prefers an untamed and abundant look in the garden and loves plants with movement like vines.
While her work is in high demand and she has outsourced the pressing process, Marian remains a one-woman show, operating out of a small but extremely organized studio in her home. Kate says, “I think Marian has a very rich inner life and she does more in a day than most of us do in a week.” In fact, Marian has come to feel that her detailed and meticulous work is a form of meditation. “The days pass so quickly,” she says. “I’m happiest of all when I am working.”
