meet paije fuller, one of the artists behind big sean's latest merch
There’s something magical about returning home— coming back into oneself. Often, we feel like in order to be the person we were destined to require us to go to spaces and places we’ve never been to. Experience life in ways we never had and in many ways, this is true. Leaving home in search of something new allows us to discover and unlock different chambers of ourselves. See, that’s the thing. We’ve always had all that we needed. We’ve always been at home in our own flesh and blood.
Dallas artist, Paije Fuller left her hometown of Dallas to head to San Francisco— pursuing a career in cosmetology. Due to COVID-19, Paije decided to return to her home in Dallas in April where she was met with open arms and open doors. Doors which led her to the opportunity of a lifetime. We spoke to Paije about her art influences, how important Texan culture is to her and her art, and how one DM turned into her designing for Big Sean.
I’d love to start by getting an understanding of when you decided or when you discovered that art was something that you could do?
I've drawn my whole life so I don't know a moment where I was like, “yes, I should be doing this for the rest of my life.” My mom's an artist so I think I just got that gene from her. I've always been creative and it’s always been an outlet for me. It's always been very therapeutic for me to make art and draw and just, you know, create in general. Growing up by that was my safe space— drawing and painting. I was pretty quiet as a kid, so that was something that made me feel comfortable.
Talk to me about your experience growing up in Dallas and how much Dallas and Texan culture has influenced your work
Texas influences my work a lot. My dad is actually from South Dallas and growing up he used to take us there. I was raised like more in the suburbs of Dallas and around Dallas— we moved around a lot. He would always take us back to Oak Cliff, where he’s from, which was kind of like the hood.
I always loved going there and seeing my aunts and my cousins from his side and a lot of my artwork is inspired by like pretty much seeing my aunts and my cousins and the women around there how they would do their hair and how they would express themselves you know? I feel like that's how Dallas has inspired my artwork. I feel like Texas itself has like a lot to offer and a lot of people don't know the real culture of Texas. Dallas has a lot of great talent here.
In your, it’s clear that beauty is a huge inspiration for you. Black women, black beauty, and black hair. There always seem to be references to those themes in your work. Talk to me about your relationship with your hair and how that is reflected in your work.
I just cut off all my hair last summer— almost exactly a year to the day. I've always changed my hair. I used to have locs. I don't have a problem cutting off my hair, dyeing it, whatever. I feel like every black girl has this experience where they go and get a relaxer— my mom raised 3 girls so she had to compromise to get our hair done. I was getting relaxers until high school. In my freshman year, I was on Tumblr heavy my freshman year of high school and I would see all these girls with their natural hair and I was like, “I want my hair to curl like that!”
I started my natural hair journey in high school and stuck through it. Eventually, I was very comfortable with my hair. I always had a pretty funny relationship with my hair back then but now I love my hair and I love doing my hair and learning new things about it.
On your website, you have a quote that says, “I create my own stories, I don't wait to be included.” Why is that important to you?
As black people, black women specifically, we constantly have this discussion about how we should be making these people let us have our seat at the table too and I was like, why do we need to wait for them to include us? They've never included us. Why can't we just create our own platforms and businesses? Businesses that already include us and that have included us from the get-go? We always deserve an opportunity and I don't feel like I need to like beg for it. I don't need to beg somebody to get my voice heard when I can just go and create my own spaces.
A lot of your work depicts movement and dancing and music. How important is music for you and who are some of your faves right now you can say is right now?
SZA, Anita Baker. There’s a lot of great women coming out of Dallas. Erica Banks. There’s also Kaash Paige. One of my friends, she makes music. She goes by the name of Trap Mama. I’m trying to get her to make more music and do some artwork for her. I love Foxy Brown. She’s one of my favorite rappers and a lot of my artwork is kind of inspired by her. A lot of my artwork is inspired by music videos.
I watch a lot of music videos to get actual stills from the video. I’ll watch the video, pause it, and draw one of the scenes into my artwork. Those pieces where you see people dancing, those come from actual music videos. Usually, I reference the late 90’s early 2000’s. Most recently I was watching Gangsta Boo’s, “Where Dem Dollars At?” I got a few stills from that. One of my art pieces we're just having a party scene and there are girls on the phone that are like leaning against the car and I got like that scene from that video.
How you link up with Big Sean?
It was super random. I was on Instagram one day and this guy by the name of Mike Carson— he'd been following me for a couple of weeks at the time. One day, he DM’d me and was like, "hey your artwork is really dope. I handle Big Sean's creative and his merch and your style kind of resonates with what we want for the next album on a T-shirt." I was like, "huh?!" He emailed me a few days later with what they were looking for and sent me a photo of girls braiding each other’s hair and I was like, yeah I can do that, no problem. I created that within a few days and sent it in and waited. He really liked it. Some months went by— I didn’t know what was happening. I did the artwork and sent it off for them to tweak it to their liking. The day they posted it was a surprise for me too— I didn’t know it was going to happen. They put the design on a shirt and a few hours later, I see Big Sean in it. It was my first big project I’d ever done. I’ve never done commission up until this year. It made me proud. If this is my first real project, what else can I do? I always thought about my art as a side job but now I can see myself having a career out of something that I love to do which makes me happy.
Do you plan on staying in Dallas?
Honestly, I’m not in any hurry to go to any other cities. The only city I could see myself moving to is Houston— that’s where my boyfriend stays. I don’t think I need to go to NY or LA to pursue anything unless it’s on a business tip. I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do here in Dallas. I’m able to reach audiences from anywhere and that’s what I had to realize when I moved from SF. I thought I was going to be stuck and unmotivated and uninspired but all of my opportunities came to me when I moved back. Everything started clicking when I moved back. That really proved to me like, yeah. I can do it all here.
I'd love to hear some other projects that you would want to work on soon. I know you mentioned having your own art shows and your own merch and working with children. What are some immediate goals you have in mind?
Right now I’m working on a coloring book that I want to produce for my online store. I think it’ll be cool even for kids to get into and adults. Maybe after COVID is gone, have an art show. I’ve never had an art show and had my art displayed somewhere. That’s like my main goal.
You can follow Paije Fuller here and buy some of her art here ( her design for Big Sean is gone, sorry ).
