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Illustrator Marlie Decopain On The Ideal Creative Environment

Marlie Decopain
Follow along as I continue my interview with illustrator and visual artist Marlie Decopain. Marlie has worked with Nike, Prudential, and pop star Rick Martin, creating eye-catching visuals and illustrations to help them promote their brands. She’s a graduate of New York’s School of Visual Arts. If you missed the first part of the interview, CLICK HERE.

Kreyolicious: When you’re creating, what do you surround yourself with?
I don’t surround myself with anything in particular, but being in solitude is important in the beginning of my creative process. It’s when I’m alone that I get inspired. It’s like filtering out everyone’s voice and energy so that I can hear and feel my own.
Illustrator Marlie Decopain
Kreyolicious: Would you say that being a creative has more plus than minuses?
I don’t think it can be measured in that way. I think that every day brings its own joys and challenges in various degrees and it’s just a matter of perspective. I do think though that there’s something special about being an artist and it’s that it requires that you touch your soul to create.

Kreyolicious: You have this piece entitled “Naked Roots”. How did that come about?
Naked Roots came about some time after I cut off my relaxed hair and started wearing my hair in its natural state. It was inspired by my journey of discovering my natural hair. After I cut off my hair, I realized that there was a whole community of women embarking on the same journey. Naked Roots was for me and also for them. These women were learning, unlearning and relearning how to properly care for their hair. Some went from seeing it as something to mask to loving it for its beauty and authenticity.

For me, this piece started out as an homage to hair but over time also became about making peace with and finding power in who you are as a person naked at your roots.
Illustrator Marlie Decopain

Kreyolicious: Out of all your visual creations, which was created with the most glee?
I enjoyed making all of my pieces, but I think that my series called ”Tribute” was the most special to me. It’s a series of 10 artwork, each featuring one of the many aspects of Haitian culture that I experienced as a child living in Haiti. This series allowed me to reconnect to my country through my art and to also bring those memories back for many Haitians in the diaspora.

If you missed the first part of this conversation, please CLICK HERE to read it!

K St. Fort
K St. Fort
ABOUT K. St Fort K. St. Fort is the Editor and Founder of, well, Kreyolicious.com and wishes to give you a heartfelt welcome to her site. She loves to read, write, and listen to music and is fascinated by her Haitian roots, and all aspects of her culture. Speaking of music, she likes it loud, really, really loud. Like bicuspid valve raising-loud. Her other love are the movies. She was once a Top 50 finalist for a student screenwriting competition, encouraging her to continue pounding the pavement. She has completed several screenplays, with Haiti as the backdrop, one of which tackles sexual abuse in an upper middle class Haitian family, while another has child slavery as its subject. She is currently completing another script, this time a thriller, about two sisters who reunite after nearly 10 years of separation. A strong believer in using films to further educational purposes, and to raise awareness about important subjects, she has made it a point to write about social issues facing Haiti, and making them an integral part of her projects. She has interviewed such Haitian-American celebrities as Roxane Gay, Garcelle Beauvais, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Briana Roy, Karen Civil, and many, many more. And that’s her writing this whole biographical sketch. She actually thinks writing about herself in the third person is cute. MY WEBSITE Kreyolicious ™: kree-ohl-lish-uh s: Surely an adjective…the state of being young, gorgeous, fine and utterly Haitian. Kreyolicious.com™, the hub for young, upwardly mobile Haitian-Americans, is akin to a 18th Century cultural salon but with a Millennium sensibility–an inviting lair, where we can discuss literature, music, problems facing the community, and everything on the side and in-between. Kreyolicious is the premier lifestyle, culture and entertainment blog and brand of the hip, young, trend-oriented, forward thinking Haitian-American. It’s the definite hot spot to learn more about Haiti our emerging identity as a people, and explore our pride and passion about our unique and vibrant culture. Within the site’s pages, Kreyolicious.com is going to engage you, empower you, and deepen your connection to everything Haitian: the issues, the culture, our cinema, the history, our cuisine, the style, the music, the worldwide community. Make yourself at home in my cultural salon. If you’re looking to learn more about Haiti, Kreyolicious.com invites you to board this trolley on a journey–on our journey. For me too, it is a process, a non-ending cultural odyssey. If you’re already acculturated, I can certainly learn something from you. We can learn from one other, for certain. With my site, Kreyolicious.com I look forward to inspiring you, to enriching you, and to participating alongside of you, in the cultural celebration. And being utterly kreyolicious. How do you wear your kreyoliciousness? On your sleeves, like I do? Kreyoliciously Yours, Your girl K. St. Fort, Ahem, follow me elsewhere!

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