Ish Lipman 5/7/25 Ish Lipman 5/7/25

PAIGE WASSEL

Paige is an LA-based designer, with a well-known youtube channel, and through her brand, WAS, has her own home goods line and a weekly newsletter. She also recently opened a storefront in EchoPark called Office Supplies and will be launching her own interior design firm WAS STUDIOS in May. You can learn more about her at:

Ouro: Can you provide a little bit about your background? What initially pulled you to interior design?

PW: I've been very interested in interior design since I was a kid. I always made my parents redesign their living room or the basement, and did my eighth-grade career report on interior design. So I've always been very interested in it, but I never really went down that path because, being from the Midwest, I feel like you're encouraged to go into a more steady career. My parents were encouraging, but it still was, you know, a path less taken, I guess. So I ended up going to college for public relations.

When I graduated, I worked for a PR firm and was eventually laid off after a year because I was clearly not very passionate about it. I was laid off and also slightly fired because I wasn't doing that good of a job. That kind of kickstarted my freelance career, where I became a prop stylist. And I think this is where I really got drawn into interiors because I started working for Architectural Digest and prop styling a lot of their shoots. My prop styling career was very geared towards styling for interior brands, like Crate & Barrel or CB2, Joybird, Elle Decor, Architectural Digest, and then a lot of projects for interior designers when they want to photograph their final projects. So that is kind of where it all started. It’s only recently that it has developed into working more within interiors.

Ouro: You’re very open and seem very comfortable on your channel. Did you find it took a while to feel comfortable, or was it something that expanded as you grew with the channel?

PW: I started my YouTube channel during the first year of Covid. I was just bored, and I bought a place in Chicago. And so I was like, maybe I'll just film myself, you know, doing some renovations around my place. None of those videos took off. And I hid all of those videos because when you first start a channel, you definitely aren’t as comfortable in front of the camera. If you go from my first videos that are available on the channel to my most recent ones, you can see how much I've developed in being comfortable and being more myself.

But you know, I was a theater kid. I was in a lot of plays when I was younger. I've always been interested in being on camera, very outgoing in that way, confident, I guess. I think I just always kind of had it in me, but it took years. It’s been in the past year or two that you can start to see my full personality shine, and I feel like I'm a lot funnier now. I think being more comfortable and playing around with different types of videos on my channel is what made it grow. It was always interior design-focused because that was always something I felt like I knew. I felt confident in my style and confident to share that with people.

Ouro: How has WAS evolved over the past few years? Do you have certain designers whom you look to for inspiration?

PW: After I started my YouTube channel, I was like, okay–if I'm going to have a platform, I'm going to use this to launch my own company. I've always wanted to have my own company. I launched a company called Tap and Tack (@tapandtack) back when I first graduated. I created homemade tapestries that were like more fun fabrics. That was kind of my first step into being an entrepreneur. I think I had that for about a year, and I did make some money on it. It was pretty fun, but I eventually shut that down as I was trying to pursue my freelance prop styling career and didn't have time.

So when I started my YouTube channel, I was like, if I'm gonna have a platform here, I want to start my home decor brand. It was always somewhat the goal alongside my YouTube channel. I said to myself that when I hit a hundred thousand subscribers, I'll launch WAS. And then I did, so I started out collaborating with a small artist in Portland named Slippy Peach and and we designed a little logo to go on wine glasses. And I think I bought 500 wine glasses and I launched those around Thanksgiving, and they all sold. So I was like, okay, I think I got something going here.

From there, I had to just teach myself how to create more products. The next one was making pillows, and I collaborated with my friend Kate. She was really helpful with starting the company in this way, and we did it out of my garage. We found a manufacturer in Los Angeles that helped us develop samples, and we learned so much. I'm so thankful for my manufacturer because she is very patient with me and taught me so much. We used to ship things out of the garage. Now we have a shipping facility, and we sell wholesale, so it's grown quite a bit. And I'm kind of at this new point of asking, where do I want to take the company in the next few years?

Certain designers whom I look to for inspiration: you know, I find a lot of inspiration on Pinterest. I draw a lot of my inspo from vintage designers, old photos, Herman Miller, stuff like that. I don't know if I can name any specific interior designers that I love. But I would say I get a lot of my inspo specifically from Pinterest. And I don't think those photos are always credited, so who knows where I'm drawing from. But if you go to my Pinterest, you can see all of the stuff I pinned and where I kind of get inspo from.

Ouro: Ouroboros mainly provides resources and classes to artists. As someone who recommends artists on your channel, selects artworks for clients, and, of course, chooses work for your own home, what do you look for in a piece? How do you ascertain what goes well in a space?

PW: When it comes to art and picking out art for clients, it's a very personal thing to select art for people because you really have to get to know them and what draws them in. I love to find an emerging artist. That's kind of the whole point of WAS. Not only do I create products myself, but I also collaborate with emerging artists to get their name out there. And so when I’m looking for art, I'm looking for emerging artists. Even if we have a large budget, I feel like clients who are working with me still want emerging artists and unique people doing unique things.

I think I'm really drawn to oil paintings specifically, but I've also been interested in photography lately. I like finding cool photographers and doing large-scale pieces. I love really large art. I think having large canvases and large pieces is interesting to me. I also love really small art too I guess, but the first thing when I see a big blank empty wall is let's get a giant piece of art here. When it comes to picking art specifically for clients, I think there's just a lot of back and forth. I also tend to leave that to a little later in the project after I get to know the client a little more, so I can know what specifically to source for them. For instance, are they drawn towards color? Do they like texture? Would they be interested in certain materials or tapestries? Or do they have an art collection already that we can add to or draw inspo from? I think selecting art is one of the hardest parts of interior design, but it also makes or breaks a space. So I like to leave it to the very end, or sometimes the very beginning, and we design a room around it.

Ouro: What are the greatest challenges you’ve faced working in a creative field? What advice do you have for people pursuing their creative endeavors?

PW: I think one of the biggest challenges I faced in working in a creative field is working with clients. For me, I'm working with all different clients every week, so it's a challenge sometimes when the client is super picky or they don't always agree with your suggestions. You really have to learn how to collaborate with those you're working with because most of the time, the client isn't just gonna be like go do whatever you want. I mean, it's kind of a dream when they do that because I'm like, okay, I can bring my vision to life. But most of the time, they have feedback and alterations. And so I find that pretty difficult. Another challenge of working in the creative field is burnout. I've experienced burnout quite a bit because when you're in a creative industry, especially when you're freelance, you're just constantly on the go, trying to find the next gig or having too many gigs or overlaps of stuff. And so I think burnout has been a huge challenge for me, and trying to find a balance between my work and personal life. As a creative, you're not working you know a nine-to-five all the time. Your creativity can spike at you know late hours at night or in the morning. So you just try to find balance in your space with work because there is a lot of overlap between your personal and work life. It all kind of blends. Figuring that out has been one of my hardest challenges. I'm still figuring it out.

Consistency is always, always, always my biggest piece of advice when anyone asks me. If you're starting a YouTube channel or whatever it is. If you're starting from the bottom, like I was. You know, I had no experience in prop styling. You have to stay consistent. You're not gonna reach success right when you begin a project. If you're an artist, you have to keep, you know, painting and painting and painting until you get to a style that fits you. And same with pretty much anything in the creative fields. There's a ton of trial and error, and you just have to stay consistent and not just drop a project because it's not working out, to go to the next one. I owe a lot of my success to being consistent week after week after week.

And so I do think that's one of my biggest pieces of advice. My other big piece of advice is when you're working in a creative field, to stay true to who you are with your art, whether it's in interiors or music or whatever. If you're doing something different, it could be cringe at the beginning. Starting a YouTube channel is cringe at the beginning. I still get a little cringed. But staying true to who you are through the bottom levels of it. Because that's when the most unique things come out.

I think my last piece of advice is, I owe a lot of my success to being a pleasant person to work with, because working with clients or in a creative field, you have to work with people every day. If you are kind and hardworking, and just good to be around, you will make it so much further in life. Because at the end of the day, we're in a new era of work where it's not really about your credentials as much. If you are a smart, hard-working person, you can learn pretty much anything. And I'm going to choose that person if I like them and if they seem like a genuine person over someone who I don't want to talk to, but they do have all the experience. So, being kind and being pleasant to work with while still having boundaries is another key piece of advice I give.

Ish Lipman 5/28/19 Ish Lipman 5/28/19

Nour Malas

It all begins with an idea.

Interview with Nour Malas

Ouro: Can you start by saying a little about your background and how that has informed your art practice?

NM: I’m Syrian and was raised in the UAE. I’ve been making work since I was a teenager. I grew up around art as it was an interest of my mother’s, so I've been surrounded by and looking at paintings from a very young age. After high school, I knew that I wanted to be an artist so I chose to study art and art history in university. A whole world of possibilities opened up. I think exploring what my practice was whilst trying to figure out who I am as a young adult really started in university. My work mainly is based around navigating a sort of world within an artwork—trying to resolve something with intuition and impulse, allowing a narrative to form itself. I’d say that my cultural background really informs this as stability is not something that is a guarantee in the Arab world. The unknown is always at the forefront of everyday life.

*All installation photographs courtesy of Carbon12 Gallery*

Ouro: You're currently exhibiting and focusing on your painting practice but have a background in sculpture. Can you tell us about your relationship with these two mediums?

NM: Although I have been painting since high school, sculpture was the one discipline that really clicked for me at the start. I love making things with my hands and sculpture really paved a way for my physical body to be a part of that experience, where the tactical and the cathartic were both involved. However during the end of grad school, I found that painting actually allowed me to do the same, and in a more simple way- mark to surface. So currently, I am focusing on painting and nurturing that side of my practice. But I do think about how I can reintroduce sculpture in the same way I approach painting. It’s exciting.

Ouro: You just opened a solo show in Dubai and moved to NYC within the last year or so. Can you say a little about producing this new body of work and how living in NYC has impacted your practice?

NM: It’s been a very eventful year to say the least. The body of work presented in the current show at Carbon12 in Dubai was all produced in NYC, starting from the month I moved. The work is definitely charged in the sense that it deals with the feelings of navigating a new space and a shift in environment- both personally and politically. I think NYC is magical not only as a city and what you are surrounded by everyday, but you also get to see a lot of art in museums and galleries etc. The inspiration is never ending. This city is so alive and it gives me energy that I feel inclined to let out in the studio. Hopefully it’s just the beginning.

Ouro: How do you find navigating the art world professionally? What aggravates you? What excites you?

NM: I think being an artist is so difficult cause you’re not only developing a whole practice but also navigating an industry- and you are usually on your own at the start. It requires a lot of patience and consistent trust in the process- so that can feel frustrating. Working with people you trust is very important and I think one needs to take their time to find the right fit. What excites me are a lot of things- opportunities for the work in the studio to be exposed to the world, it feels like a huge accomplishment. Meeting people- I like being social and have made some great friends in the art world that I met along the years.

Ouro: From being in your studio and our conversations, I know that you often have references open, and are consistently looking back at art history as a source of inspiration. Painting seems special in that it allows for a dialogue and for a sort of hybrid language to evolve between artists living and dead. How do you know when to look and when to stop looking?

NM: I love this question because nothing exists in a vacuum, everything comes from something. I love looking at art, it was important to me even before I became an artist. In painting, it’s pretty amazing how much my subconscious can pull out references from paintings I saw years ago and I’m not aware of it until way after the fact.

Having said that, I do think it’s important to have some sort of limit on how much information we let in sometimes. For example, if I feel stuck on a painting, I deliberately don’t look at other people’s work or go to shows during that time. I want the painting to guide me as much as I can allow it to.

Sometimes we can end up working from a place of anxiety and think that the answer is outside of us when we actually already have the answer.