"Less than a year ago I moved from an apartment in Manhattan to
a house in Northampton, Mass. I was very happy with my choice,
but to make it really fit my needs, I needed someone who could
function both as a craftsman and interior designer. I even had an
additional desire, that whoever came to help me would have
the temperament of an artist. I am both an art historian and
former gallery owner and the art I own was part of the vision
I was after for the house. To my delight, Neal Parks, an artist and designer living here in the Pioneer Valley, fit the bill to a T. He not only
helped me resolve some building issues that, at first, struck
me as insuperable, he came up with an ingenious solution to
provide overnight visitors with privacy in a house with an
open plan. To close off the guest quarters when necessary,
Neal designed a screen that was not only easy to maneuver ,
but was a work of art in itself. Painted in the meticulous,
yet free-hand, scroll patterns that are his specialty, he even
differentiated between the daytime view of the screen –lighter,
more colorful--and the suggestion of dusk and darkness that was to
accompany my guests’ slumbers. What made the design special was the way it was both a response to my aesthetic and yet an expression of his own painting style."
Monica S.