Through the Years
The couple, who live and work in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, were married before 90 guests Aug. 5, 2017 at the Spillian Mansion in the Catskills. “We throw huge parties with wrestlers on the roof, so we wanted this to be more intimate and not as outrageous,” Ms. Catron said. They each made their own wedding attire: Mr. Outlaw collaborated with the tailor Jerry Lee Atwood to create a suit with embroidered roosters and rhinestones. Ms. Catron created a white origami-esque gown with cascading sculptural ruffles.
Ms. Catron, then 23, met Mr. Outlaw, 28, in 2007 at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. “He was strange and absurd, and was too much of a showman, so I was hesitant,” she said. “But he was unlike anyone I’d ever met. He was into art, commerce and performance, so he turned half his studio into a bar and the other half into a bodega, and hired me as a bartender.”
Mr. Outlaw served cocktails to students and teachers, and sold beef jerky, beer and candy; Ms. Catron entertained everyone by marionetting taxidermied mice from the ceiling. “He expressed interest, and I pushed him away for six months,” she said. “But then he charmed me and I decided he was brilliant and artistically bold. I was always attracted to him. Eventually I decided he was the one.”
What Ms. Catron expected to be a fling turned into a long-term relationship and artistic collaboration. “We were so poor we never went out to eat,” she said. “We stayed in his studio drinking and talking into the evening. That’s what we did.”
The pair graduated in 2009 and moved to separate parts of Brooklyn while their relationship continued to grow. A year later, they moved in together. For the next five years, as their work expanded, so did their relationship. In 2015, they were each awarded a monthlong residency in the French Riviera by the La Napoule Art Foundation, and during that time Mr. Outlaw proposed. “He arranged a hike up this mountain at sunset,” she said. “At the top was a map we’d used on projects, which he’d written, ‘Will you marry me?’”
What They’ve Learned
Ms. Catron Paul is crazy, creative and dependable. Monetary stability has become more important to him, so he started a set fabrication company just so we’d both be more secure. Artistically, he doesn’t see any sort of limit. I find that brave and encouraging.
I love that he brings out the most insane part of me. I want to feel free and that my creativity is boundless. He gives me that freedom.
The couple were married before 90 guests Aug. 5, 2017 at the Spillian Mansion in the Catskills.CreditLauren Silberman
Together we’ve learned to become bolder and much less sensible, which has led to impulse artistic creations and collaborations. We bought a hot-air balloon for a piece we were creating, and an oversize spaghetti machine, which we keep in storage. The boldness has brought us closer together. It builds a bond, we have success and we fail together. All of our gambles are the same.
We make each other better artists, and better people. We never set out to collaborate, it just happened.
I didn’t think I had to be married, but now that I am, I’m surprisingly happy. There’s the stability that we now have governmental rights to each. It’s a nonromantic thing, but it adds another element to know someone else will be there.
I didn’t think marriage would change us, but it has. It sets you up for thinking that’s bigger. We have a house now; we are thinking about having a family. I thought it would be a few years before that shift would happen. But now those big questions are coming up, and Paul is starting to think that way, too. I’ve learned to become more domestic; suddenly I’m furniture shopping and decorating. I never saw that coming.
I’ve learned to think of myself more as a unit, and that adds a new level to our relationship. I thought marriage would be stifling, but with Paul it doesn’t feel that way. It feels freeing, and that was a surprise.
Mr. Outlaw Jen has a happy, outgoing personality. She makes friends easily. That caught my interest when we met. I’m the same. You get the two of us together and it’s pretty nonstop laughter and conversation. We fueled each other then and we do that now.
She has a lot of powerful emotions about life and work. She’s inspirational. She’s never backed down from any challenge, and handles them with grace and confidence. That’s intoxicating. She’s taught me determination. I have big dreams and big goals, but I can get down and she teaches me that’s not effective. She’s my motivating factor. She makes me a better artist and person. She’s also beautiful, cute, smart and charming. I’m always impressed with her intelligence.
Getting married was a big moment. It’s the final solidification of our partnership, love and commitment. Marriage has taught me this relationship is no longer an abstract, that it’s a forever thing. It’s a symbolic gesture of something that already existed. I don’t wear a ring because I work with so many power tools. I wear it on special occasions. The relationship and how we act is what’s important, and the way we do shows we are married. We’re an obvious partnership the minute we walk into a room. I want people to know this is my wife and that I’m committed. Marriage didn’t change me, Jennifer did.
I expect us to keep growing closer; we do every year. Our goals and dreams are merging together constantly, as are we. That will continue. We are each other’s motivations to enjoy life and expand our knowledge. We want to be people that matter, and we want to do that together until we we’re so old that we can’t move anymore.
