Destination Ad Art will showcase esteemed artist and Newtown resident Stephen Morris’ oil paintings, marble murals, illustrations, and more in an exhibition at Edmond Town Hall later this month.

The exhibition is free to the public and will be on display from 11 am-5 pm, April 25-27, in the Alexandria Room of Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street.

One of the many pieces on display at the exhibit is what Morris calls his “masterpiece marble mural,” a 20” x 15” white jade marble engraving titled “The Intervention of the Sabine Women.” It is inspired by the original painting of the same name by French painter Jacques-Louis David, which currently resides at the Louvre Museum in Paris, taking the intricate detail of the original and transposing it onto a 3D plane.

Another piece on display will be Morris’s newest work, “Water Lily Dancer,” an oil painting that features a ballerina gracefully dancing across a lake on water lily pads. She is adorned in a dazzling dress made out of peacock feathers, which was handmade by Morris’ wife, Laura.

Fiona Shaw, a 14-year-old ballet dancer with Newtown Centre of Classical Ballet, served as the model for “Water Lily Dancer.” She will perform a special ballet piece she choreographed herself, inspired by the painting, during a private event for the exhibition on Saturday, April 26.

Born in the United Kingdom, Morris originally started as a food chemist and quality control manager before earning multiple awards for his work as a toy designer with toy company Melissa & Doug. He worked there nearly 20 years, becoming one of their principal toy designers and concept creators. His art pieces have been exhibited at the world-famous Royal Academy of Art in London.

Morris has always held a passion for the arts and, over the years, has gone on to express his creativity in a wide variety of mediums. From oil pointing and masonry to self-publishing a children’s book on Amazon, Morris’s drive to create has not wavered.

Morris is now the head artist of Destination Ad Art, a local business he started that supplies creative works of art for the community and surrounding area. Morris is not alone, however. He is joined by the lead engineer of Destination Ad Art Mike Hajzer in creating fantastical art pieces and engravings.

Their partnership began just shy of two years ago, when Morris approached Hajzer through a family friend after hearing he was a machinist. Hajzer, who grew up in and lived most of his life in Newtown, is a CNC machinist whose father owns G & H Tool Company. The local business is a small contract machine shop that serves customers in various industries such as medical, aerospace, and nuclear, so Hajzer went on to work in the trade with his father.

Morris presented Hajzer with a proposition: to machine with stone for him and, in turn, create art. Hajzer initially hesitated, having only ever machined metals, plastics, and composites before. Through some convincing, Hajzer said he visited Morris’s house, took a look at the machine, and thought he could work with it.

Morris used his connections with past business partners, specifically with a vendor that supplies stones internationally, for the materials.

Hajzer eventually got a handle on the hardware provided and, after some tooling and tests, had their first concept piece after a month and a half. The piece was a 2½-inch thick white jade marble engraving of a Roman soldier. Having worked in his field for 11 years, Hajzer said he’s “never come across a challenge quite like this.”

He added, “It opened my mind to all sorts of possibilities.”

Streamlining The Process

Hajzer picked the design to see how well he could replicate recognizable human features into stone. According to Hajzer, he was “blown away” at the level of detail he was able to get with their 3D models. That being said, the actual process of running the machine to carve patterns into the stone can take multiple days of work, depending on the piece.

He said the process for creating one of their pieces starts by generating a 3D model. This is easier said than done, but is helped by Hajzer’s experience in 3D modeling and animation, as well as coding languages Python and C++.

Through the use of various tools such as the computer graphic software Blender, the digital sculpting tool ZBrush, and the CAM software BobCAD, Hajzer said they were able to create a streamlined process of generating a concept.

They go through several different iterations, eventually land on an idea, and go from there. Of the actual process of Morris reaching out as a total stranger and setting up an exhibition in nearly two years, Hajzer said the journey they have taken together since has been a “whirlwind.”

“It’s kind of crazy because this happened really fast,” Hajzer said.

What makes working with Morris so enjoyable, Hajzer said, is they bounce off of each other creatively. Morris’s background in traditional art and design paired with Hajzer’s background in machinery and engineering has created a partnership where they each push the other in their creativity.

Hajzer said it’s especially amazing watching Morris work because, being so multi-talented, he can leverage a lot of skills that help him create a concept and bring his ideas to life.

“So working together using my engineering brawn and [Morris’] artistic intuitions and talents, we’ve created our marble murals,” Hajzer said.

Future Plans

Morris and Hajzer have gone to great lengths in preparing the April event at Edmond Town Hall. They held a dress rehearsal late Tuesday, April 8, when they met with Shaw and her mother to test the fitting for the custom peacock dress and see how the choreography flowed on the Alexandria Room’s stage.

Everyone bounced ideas back and forth, from the choreography to where “Water Lily Dancer” would be displayed on the stage. The ultimate goal, Morris said, is for the performance to feel like Shaw “is floating out of the painting.”

Morris and Hajzer also worked on ironing out where the dozens of additional art pieces would go throughout the room, making sure everything was placed out just right by taking measurements.

Morris’s ambitions don’t stop with the exhibition later this month. His dream is to have “Water Lily Dancer” hang in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and give Shaw the chance to dance her choreography around the museum.

Beyond that, he and Hajzer have also been talking to restaurants and local businesses in Sandy Hook. They recently sold a 30- by 60-inch marble piece, “The Lady of the Lake,” to Ben’s Masonry Supply & Hardware, which plans to install it in front of the South Main Street property, according to Morris. They also designed a 4” statue featuring a bald eagle on a pillar that will also be delivered to them.

Hajzer said he and Morris are grateful for their relationship with Ben’s Masonry, and hope to work with each other to create more designs in the realm of kitchenware such as tabletops and benches.

To that end, Morris said Destination Ad Art is committed to create one-of-a-kind designs for people in the area and is taking custom order submissions online for seating, figures, tabletops/islands, and modern pieces.

Morris is equally as excited to have the space at Edmond Town Hall to show off everything he has worked on for the exhibition. For him and Hajzer, it is only the first step.

For more information about Destination Ad Art, visit destinationadart.com or follow their Instagram @destination.ad.art.

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.