In a world where you can get pretty much anything cheap and fast, that’s not what Paul Michael Company or Market Hill offers.
“We provide components of substance and value that you can use to create an environment,” Paul says, about the Paul Michael Company, the home décor and lifestyle brand he founded, with wife, Debbie, in 1993. “If you can create an environment, you’re more comfortable and your guests are more comfortable,” he says.
The environment Paul creates at Market Hill in Round Top is one of curated comfort. It’s a feeling of being surrounded by original art and handmade products designed to inspire, built to last, and made to elevate everyday life.
“We have unique products you don’t see every day,” Paul says. “These are investments intended to be heirlooms … treasures of the future.”
One of these treasures is a coffee table with crystals in it, inspired by Diego Giacometti, Paul tells us.
“Diego Giacometti did a famous octagonal table. It sold at auction for $3.6 million. This was recently. I noticed it because I was studying his work and took great influence from what he designed in the 1940s and 50s. It has a sculpted human figure at each point of the octagon. They stand at the edges of the table like guards, that’s the symbolism.”
“I have crystal points with a crystal in the center. If you look at a picture of his table and my table, they are dissimilar, but that’s where my inspiration came from. That’s how art is created. Gauguin said, ‘Art is either plagiarism or revolution.’ What it means is all art is taking inspiration from other artists. The coffee table is about function. Whether someone thinks it’s art, that’s for them to decide. All of my work has function.”
As for the process, he says, “I give myself all the time I need. I wouldn’t attempt a project like this unless I had thought about it for a long time. If you try to weld a piece of copper to a crystal, the crystal will break apart. We have been figuring out how to attach those crystals for two months. Sometimes I have to abandon a concept, but, in this case, we have been able to figure it out.”
Paul employs a team of craftsmen in his woodshop in Dermott, Arkansas, where his Paul Michael Exclusives are made.
“All of the workers – everybody in our company – adds creative influence,” Paul says. “Our welders know about form and how things are supposed to be. More often, they let me know they could do something that we didn’t know could be done. I rarely give them a task they can’t perform.”
In addition to his exclusive line of furniture, Paul continues to paint.
“I have been working on the same painting for two years,” he says. “It’s not a commercial endeavor. I don’t suppose I will ever get paid for my time on it. It’s that I have learned a tremendous amount from it. It’s like lifting weights, stretching your brain. It’s something curious. Painting with acrylic on canvas has very little to do with welding crystals to a coffee table, but we immediately know when something doesn’t look right. The form is so essentially important. It is what Constantin Brâncuși termed as the pursuit of a continuous line. If you think of the human body, that continuity gives it its beauty and that pertains to various forms of art.”
“I spend a lot of time studying the works by the masters and taking inspiration … Giacometti and Brâncuși, the masters greatly influence my art and design.”
This year, Paul has had more time to create.
“The pandemic has given me time. The brief interruption of our business [at Market Hill after the Spring Show was canceled] gave me time.”
He believes the pandemic has given people more time to spend on their homes.
“I think that there’s a pent-up demand in our nation,” Paul says. “A quest for something that’s real. There’s a huge appetite for the truth. That’s what we strive to do at Paul Michael and Market Hill is to tell the truth in our work, to offer products that are truly valuable. We propose that our pieces have integrity and artistic significance.”
“Our clients know when it’s real. When they get to Round Top, it’s a tremendous amount of fun. It’s a playground for adults. Truth and realness permeate through the goods and the nature of people in Round Top in general. Market Hill is within a two-hour drive of 12 million people, and we have beautiful things to put in their homes. We will be open every day during the Fall Show and through December 15.”
As for what’s new at this show, a Christmas fantasyland will occupy a 15,000-SF building next to Market Hill. Paul Michael Company has been the largest vendor of the Houston-based Nutcracker Market for 25 years. This year, the Nutcracker Market at the NRG Park has been canceled, and the Ballet is holding a virtual market. Thankfully, Paul Michael Company is bringing the magic of the Nutcracker Market to Round Top with a stand-alone Christmas Market sponsored by Houston Ballet Nutcracker Market. This Christmas Market will be open mid-October through the end of the year and will benefit the Houston ballet.
“It’s going to be WOW. I promise WOW,” Paul says.
Paul Michael’s pieces are best experienced in person, so come to the Fall Show at Market Hill to see them in real life. Until then, follow @paulsworldAR, @PaulMichaelCompany and @Market_Hill_Round_Top for a peek at his process.