Contemporary Marquetry by Juli Morsella
Juli Morsella
Roy enjoys surprising his wife with unique gifts. This year he decided to have a portrait commissioned, something that would express the many aspects of her personality and accomplishments.
After spending a lot of time in careful research – something that as a scientist and college professor he is adept at – Roy decided on the talented artist Patricia Ariel , a Brazilian living in Kentucky.
He worked closely with Patricia, and was very pleased with the portrait which captured his wife’s boldness and creativity, and contained symbols that expressed both her personality and her passions. Now he wanted a frame for the picture, but not just any frame.
He wanted:
After once again trolling the internet intensively for a likely candidate, Roy, who apparently likes to make his life difficult, decided that the marquetry artist he was looking for was me, living in Hawaii, on the opposite side of the planet from the UK.
He got in touch with me through my web site, http://julimorsella.com, and we began an intensive e-mail exchange, running through many and varied ideas before coming up with a preliminary design that satisfied us both.
From there, and always with Roy’s input, the complex final design was completed, circular in nature, that tells a story on its own, while interacting with the story told by the painting as well. Choosing the woods to use was one of the more challenging aspects of making this frame, and one on which I spent a lot of time and thought.
This was an interesting project because it combined art and design, had very restrictive constraints because of the size and shape of the “canvas”, the pre-existing painting it had to become a part of, and a client who was wanted to be very involved in the process.
I truly enjoyed the collaboration and the challenge of producing something I had never made before. What does Roy think of the experience? This is what he has to say:
After commissioning a painting of my wife as a present from the symbolist painter Patricia Ariel, I decided I needed a special frame. After much searching I found Juli Morsella’s website.
I am based in the UK so it would be challenging as the painting was thousands of miles from her. Juli is practical, understood the need for dimensional stability and form; an artist/designer who could work with structures and knew her wood. Working with Juli was a joy, not only did she understand the work of a symbolist but could work in a complimentary manner, contributing her own creation.
It was easy to engage in the creative process or let her get on with it as seemed appropriate. She is easy to work with and would not stop until I was happy, keeping me informed at every step of the process and freely exchanging ideas. She worked to time and budget.
Despite the many thousands of miles of air freight the frame had to endure when the frame arrived the picture dropped in the frame with sub millimetre precision, art and geometry combined.
We are based in Europe. We have been long time collectors of art and antiques and we also sell both inexpensive pieces and rarer pieces to galleries and dealers in Europe and the US. I was able to get the frame and picture put together by a museum framer. He tells me it is the most stunning combination he has seen and he tells me it will end up in a museum one day!
So, as you can see, Roy’s story has a happy ending, one I am very pleased to have been a part of.
This story illustrates what is unique about what I am offering you – it is my goal to produce projects that cater specifically to you, and I will not rest until that is accomplished, be it a kitchen, a wall closet, a mural or, as in Roy’s case, a single special item.
High quality workmanship coupled with creativity and doing one project at a time, from scratch, devoting my complete attention to it, and not stopping until you are completely satisfied.
Give me a call (808)255-4535 (Hawaii time) or contact me via email
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