Art
Since 2003 Muriel has continually created additions to her culturally celebrative art series of USA flags. The diverse people who coexist in this great country inspire the project, which is entitled E PLURIBUS. She has recently launched a clothing line available at ShopEpluribus.com created in partnership with friends David and Malena Belafonte of PinkPirate Agency. In addition Muriel’s artistic focus on the project has shifted to portraits of people close to her; celebrating their cultural heritage. Learn more about E Pluribus Portraits.
Currently, 16 E Pluribus flags are installed permanently in the lobby of 315 Hudson Street, New York City. It is open to the public. Last summer in 2019, Muriel created a site-specific installation for BRIC Media Arts in Brooklyn and showed 6 flags in the series. In March 2019 more were seen in Danbury, CT at the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut. The flags were exhibited in summer of 2018 at The Monroe C. Gutman Library Gallery of the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Boston. In 2017 courtesy of Chashama.org, Muriel exhibited her flags at 485 Madison Avenue from Flag Day to Independence Day. In 2011, E Pluribus exhibited in Fairfield, CT at ARC Fine Art. Her flags have been seen at Martha Stewart’s American Made Summit in 2015. In 2011, her flags were displayed at Charlotte’s Place, a Trinity Church Community Center where she was commissioned to oversee construction of a community art flag to honor the tenth anniversary of 9/11.
Before that, E Pluribus enjoyed a solo exhibit at the Charles B. Wang Center at SUNY Stony Brook NY. Since 2004, the flags have been seen in over 20 venues including La Guardia College, Queens Libraries, and galleries in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut. The New Britain Museum of American Art now owns the original E Pluribus African flag as part of its permanent collection.
History
Muriel was born and raised in England. She moved to Long Island, NY in 1967. She was impressed by how eager her new friends were to share their own diverse immigrant histories. She began early in entertainment as a stage manager for theater. In the 1970’s she received a federal grant to form a theater company in rural Vermont. Over the last 40 years, while maintaining a successful career in costume design, she has directed several shows in NYC and in New England, performed onstage, crewed backstage, managed costume shops, designed and painted scenery, and taught aspiring designers. She is a Reiki healer, a writer, media consultant and artist.
Education
Muriel was educated until age 13 in the United Kingdom. She graduated in 1979, Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Vermont with a BS in Nutrition. She earned her MFA in 1982 from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Design Department. Throughout, Muriel has extensively studied the cultures and religions of the world by reading many of the classic texts and through various classes, workshops, seminars, retreats and much travel.
Employment
In 2014, Muriel returned to costume design and created costumes for Opera Omnia’s production, The Return of Ulysses, directed by Crystal Manich. Muriel has been consistently employed at The Jim Henson Company, constructing costumes for the Muppets in recent films and Sesame Street episodes. In February of 2007, Muriel designed and constructed puppet costumes for the new Kennedy Center production of Carnival. In the summer of 2006, she designed costumes for two original productions at the Colorado World Theatre Festival starring Lynn Redgrave and Brian Murray. Prior to that, Muriel created costumes for the feature film Conversations with God, released in October of 2006 and produced and directed by Stephen Deutsch. This film is based on the life story of Neale Donald Walsch, author of books by the same name.
For over 30 years, Muriel has enjoyed an extensive and varied career in the entertainment industry, thus cultivating a stellar professional ethic and network of professional contacts. She has created some scenery and many outstanding costumes for some of the finest producers of film, TV, and live entertainment. Among these are Disney (Citykids & Out of the Box), Children’s Television Workshop (Ghost Writer), NBC (Law and Order), CBS (Guiding Light), PBS, ABC (One Life to Live), Universal Television (The Equalizer), Elizabeth Ireland McCann (Three Tall Women), The Vineyard and Public Theaters, The Champlain Shakespeare Festival and dozens of US and European regional theaters. Muriel has worked with world-renowned, award-winning performers, directors, writers, and composers such as Richard Adler, Colleen Dewhurst, Adriana Trigiani, Kermit the Frog, Tony Roberts, S. Epatha Merkeson, Lynn Redgrave, and Edward Albee. She has spent over 20 years working with Jim Henson Productions, building and designing costumes for puppets and people.
Teaching
For 14 years, Muriel was a valued member of the teaching faculty at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Graduate Design Department.
Writing
Recently, she has redirected her career in order to produce uplifting entertainment. She produced and directed a short film, New York City Spirit, about New Yorkers taking time to connect to their divine. She was commissioned to write the book for a new music version of the classic Hindu Scripture, The Ramanaya. The musical still in the works has become an opera based on Rama’s wife, Sita. In 2016 Muriel published the novel Gabriel Born based on her award winning screenplay, Gabriel’s Flight. She has written numerous articles on entertainment, and products for the magazines, ScriptMag, The Independent and RaveSQ.