The artist
Marcie Woodard
Marcie is a Sinologist and artist whose work is shaped by years of study, travel, and lived experience in China.
Her path has taken her across the United States, China, and Germany, where she studied Chinese language, culture, economics, and international studies. Throughout those years, she developed a deep appreciation for the visual language of Chinese art; from the expressive discipline of calligraphy to the symbolism found in painting, ornament, and the natural world.
Today, those experiences continue to inform her work through Qidie Studio.
A STUDY OF LANGUAGE & GESTURE
Where Meaning & the Hand Converge
While living and studying in China, Marcie cultivated a devotion to Chinese characters, calligraphy, and drawing. Disciplines where meaning and gesture are inseparable.
The movement of a brush can carry both image and expression. A single mark can be studied, deliberate, spontaneous, or symbolic.
This sensitivity to line, gesture, and visual language remains central to Marcie's artistic practice today. Her work is not a reproduction of traditional Chinese art, but a personal interpretation shaped by years of observation, study, and admiration.
THE ARTISTIC LENS
A Dialogue Between Histories
Qidie Studio explores the meeting place of Chinese visual traditions and European decorative art.
Marcie is particularly drawn to Chinoiserie: a European decorative tradition shaped by centuries of fascination with China. Through painting, decorative panels, murals, and original works, she revisits this visual language through her own perspective.
Each piece begins with a process of looking. Looking at a historic interior, a Chinese painting, garden, an object, or a fragment of visual history and allowing those references to evolve through the artist's hand.
THE MEANING OF QIDIE
An Exquisite Butterfly
The name Qidie is a poetic construction inspired by the Chinese words qǐ (绮) , meaning exquisite or richly patterned, and dié (蝶) , meaning butterfly.
Together, they form the idea of an exquisite butterfly.
For Marcie, the name reflects a fascination with beauty, transformation, ornament, and layered meaning. Themes that continue throughout the work of Qidie Studio.
QIDIE STUDIO
Art for the Decorated Interior
Qidie Studio is an evolving body of original artwork, hand-painted decorative panels, and bespoke murals.
Each project is an opportunity to create a world of its own—one informed by history and tradition, yet made for the spaces and lives of the present.
From intimate works on paper to immersive hand-painted interiors, Qidie Studio brings together scholarship, imagination, and the enduring language of the hand.
Inspiration
Tree Peonies in Full Bloom
An early 20th-century painting attributed to the Qing imperial court, Tree Peonies in Full Bloom carries a remarkable history. Its inscription was signed by scholar Lu Runxiang, while its seal belonged to Empress Dowager Longyu.
In 1913, as the Qing dynasty came to an end, Longyu personally gifted the painting to U.S. Ambassador William C. Calhoun and his wife as they departed Beijing. Rather than an object exchanged through trade, it was offered as a personal farewell, a piece of Chinese culture carried directly to America.
For Qidie Studio, the painting represents cultural generosity over commerce, and the beauty of sharing something meaningful from one world with another. It is this idea of cultural exchange, history, and the stories carried through objects that inspired L’Incompiuto.
EDUCATION & STUDY
Marcie’s background spans Chinese language, culture, business, economics, and Sinology, with studies in China, the United States, and Germany.
Anshan Normal University · Chinese Language & Culture
University of Alabama at Birmingham · Marketing & Business Administration, Chinese Minor
Universität Würzburg · M.A. China Language & Economy
Peking University · Chinese Economics & International Studies
