For Durham artist and UNC alum Lori Melliere, art is a means to tell stories of history, of change and of people.
But this North Carolina transplant never imagined her art – which includes watercolor and pen-and-ink drawings of city landscapes, historical architecture and native flora throughout the state – would combine her work as a librarian and fascination with state history in a creative way.
Before venturing on her journey to becoming a full-time artist, Melliere worked at a local nonprofit, frequently researching and reading through local historical archives. Though her work as a librarian and historian was fulfilling, in 2018 Melliere and a friend launched Papermill Creative, a small, online art and print store.
In February 2021, Melliere stepped into her role as the full-time sole proprietor of Papermill Creative and is currently responsible for everything, from creating the art to managing the business.
In terms of Melliere’s creative process, her drawings, especially her city prints, can take anywhere from 50 to 60 hours to complete, not including the foundational research.
“What I see is what inspires me,” she said. “I see beautiful things and I just want to represent that. I love working in little details that make these places feel like a lived experience.”
While Papermill Creative has its roots in the Triangle, it is not exclusive to the Piedmont region. In fact, Melliere’s work is all-encompassing, with original prints depicting towns across North Carolina, from Asheville to Wilmington.
Focus points of her Bull City series include the Durham Performing Arts Center, the Lucky Strike Tower at the American Tobacco Campus and, of course, the iconic statue of Major the bull in downtown Durham.
Though her Durham-centric art is wildly popular, her current research about Wilmington’s history seems to be promising and especially relevant considering today’s current social justice movements. Her next focus concerns the 1898 Wilmington Massacre – a frequently forgotten historical event – and the implications that followed for the town and its Black residents specifically.
Her Wilmington prints will include the Wilmington Journal’s building to serve as a reminder of the racial injustices that happened decades ago.
“In 1898, there was a coup where white supremacists overthrew the local government and killed a lot of Black residents,” Melliere explained. ”It’s tragic. It’s important to represent experiences beyond the most famous landmarks.”
Looking long-term, Melliere hopes to fill her line with more original works outside of North Carolina, including pieces from Charleston and Savannah.
“But I think I’ll always be coming back to North Carolina,” she said. “I want to keep the audience here and I want to keep them engaged by introducing new North Carolina products, but I am wanting to expand as well.”
Although cities and architecture are certain to change, one thing that will never change is the history of what makes the state or city special or unique – and that’s what Melliere hopes to capture in her art.
“I just want my art to celebrate the places that people love by capturing how these cities and neighborhoods feel, bring back happy memories, and if they encourage people to learn a little bit about the architecture and history of places that are included, that’s great too,” Melliere said.
For those interested in purchasing from Papermill Creative, Melliere’s works can be found on her Etsy store or at these locations:
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
