Morses leaving mark on corporate art landscape
St. Louis Business Journal - by Ron Janecke
Stacey and Stuart Morse are more than just artists -- they are educators and ambassadors for the arts.
The Chesterfield couple, who formed Morse Fine Art Studios after graduating from Maryville University in 1987, are trying to bridge the gap between the art world and the corporate world.
They create customized artwork primarily for business clients that blends into the corporate environment and communicates the objectives of the companies.
In addition, Stacey and Stuart serve as consultants advising clients on not only what art work would be best for their offices, but also educating companies on how art fits into the image and the surroundings.
Stuart is president and co-owner of the four-person firm. His work focuses on the landscape as it relates to both nature and man. His canvases range in size from small studies to large composites over 12 feet in dimension. He has traveled to remote areas of the United States and Canada to capture images for his paintings.
Stacey is vice president and co-owner and has been a fine art photographer for more than 12 years, specializing in large format black and white compositions.
"Stuart started doing customized art work right after graduating from Maryville," Stacey said. "In 1994, we combined our photo and painting to offer more to clients."
Morse Fine Art often works with interior design firms and architects to make presentations for corporations.
They have worked on a national basis, including a lot of work for casino companies Argosy Gaming, the Casino Queen, Harrah's Casino and President Casino and recently got work for Stations Casino St. Charles.
Morse Fine Art spent about five months creating nine pieces of art for Washington University.
The work at Wash U. is an example of the scope of a project. Morse Fine Art was brought in by a design firm. The pieces created were done to show the integral facets and diversity of the university. Morse Fine Art even went through the archives before creating the nine pieces on 4 foot by 9 foot canvases.
The work was put on the canvases digitally and painted over with a glazing technique to create a fine art piece. The frames were made to match the school's millwork .
Sun Microsystems, Directions In Design and HOK have been other large clients.
Large projects, such as one for Argosy Gaming in New Orleans, take three months to complete. Morse Fine Art called on 25 artists to work on 7,000 square feet of murals.
A Web site was created within the last year which documents the different phases of a project. For big art projects, a client can check the site for its progress. Morse Fine Art Studios' Web site is http://www.morsefineart.com
Projects can range in size from $2,000 to $200,000, and the firm is studying a proposal now that is close to $500,000.
Stacey is a consultant to the Chesterfield Arts Commission, and she and Stuart have spoken to more than 100 groups in their effort to further educate the St. Louis community on art.
"Ideally, we'd like to work on a couple of projects at a time," said Stacey, "but we're realists, we know it's either feast or famine. The past five years have been good, but last year we did a lot of consulting work which doesn't bring in as much money."
Revenue fluctuates from year to year for the firm whose sales have been under $1 million thus far.
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