THE ARTS CAPTIVATED her from an early age, so as long as she gets to express her spirit through some form of artistic expression, Merlene Riley-Thorpe is happiest. She is a painter, photographer, writer, interior designer and furniture restorer.
Riley-Thorpe’s main focus at present happens to be upholstering and restoring furniture, and putting an artistic twist to them; something she has been doing since 1999.
“My family has always been into the arts; my mother and sisters were into fashion design, another sister into drapery,” she said.
“I wanted to get into an area to complement what they were doing and I chose upholstery. From there I just went into interior design.”
Riley-Thorpe’s skills were birthed during an apprenticeship with a workman with whom she first learned how to cane chairs and French polish. She then learned upholstery before further developing her skills through the one-year interior design programme and the two-year associate degree in fine arts at the Barbados Community College (BCC).
Wrought iron too
For her final project she created a table and African stools under the theme Connecting Barbados To Africa. It was called The Table of Greatness and had a circle symbolising greatness, while the stool had the map of Africa and incorporated bamboo.
Riley-Thorpe, who lives at Newbury, St George, operates her business Decor and Home Improvement Services from Bank Hall, from there she restores wooden and wrought iron furniture and upholstered items.
The newest skill she has added to her repertoire is restoring wrought iron because she said usually people bring the furniture to have the upholstery restored, but they do not usually have the wrought iron sanded or welded back together, if broken. Now they can have a complete restoration. For wooden furniture, she also does carving and engraving, and works with her brother who does very intricate designs.
She said most furniture can be restored unless the wood is rotting, wrought iron lasts almost forever while upholstery is the most expensive to restore since it has to be stripped completely and put back together.
“I like to hear people saying ‘wow’. That gives me the ultimate joy,” she said. However, she was not always sure she could make this her career.
“I was always in the arts. When I was young I was into performing at school and church; I did art class while at Springer Memorial. I still was not seeing the arts as a career because you know how arts is seen here, and I was undecided,” she said.
It was not until a few years ago she made the decision to take the business seriously, went to BCC and graduated in 2014. She said that in itself was an experience since she was an older woman in a class full of teenagers.
She recently acquired some new equipment and is looking to branch into upholstery for cars, along with detailing cars, including degreasing, engine cleaning and reupholstery.
And if that was not enough, she is also a writer of poetry and short stories. She has submitted pieces for the National lndependence Festival of Creative Arts.
She also entered an item to the Frank Collymore Endowment Award – short stories based on the seven deadly sins. She did not receive a prize but still counts the experience as a good one.
She has done some creative writing and script writing courses, one with the United States Embassy and the National Cultural Foundation that led to her piece being performed at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination at the University of the West Indies.
Finding myself
“Funny thing is I came in late on that class and they were so intrigued by my piece that they sent it forward the night before the selection process and I was able to get a prize for that too,” she said.
At present Riley-Thorpe is in compilation mode and will in due course have some work to share with the public.
In a reflective mood she said: “I was trying to find myself because everybody kept telling me, oh Merlene you do not know what you want to do, you are a Jack of all trades. But my thing is when you are into the arts sometimes your brain does not rest, you have so many things to express. You use the mediums available to you to express what you are pregnant with.”
However, the entrepreneur said though she is into many things she does not stray from who she is.
“I don’t try to get into sports or mechanics or things that I am not interested in.”
The work Riley-Thorpe does has not gone unnoticed by the people in the community where she lives. She was recently awarded by the Newbury community,” she said.
Riley-Thorpe advised people interested in the arts to “feel your own spirit so you will know what your purpose is. Why watch people or try to do what they do when their purpose is not yours”.
“People may tell you that you are doing foolish and you will feel bad,” she said.
“I have been there, but as long as you know what you are doing and want to do, just keep doing it because it is your path and nobody cannot walk your path for you, or you for them.” (LK)