Introducing Janette Surrisi's "Monday afternoon at the Ocean"

Janette Surrisi's chair, titled Monday afternoon at the Ocean personifies a summer breeze in the sand! It really must be seen in person to experience this work of art!

When asked to share some special aspects and vision of Mrs. Surrisi's chair, she replies, "The antique chair was purchased at the Jon Stiegler's Antique Store in Burr Oak, Indiana. The tiger maple chair I spotted had a very worn seat covering and I loved the idea of using fabric. I also knew I wanted to do something with a nautical, ocean, or lake theme. In talking to Jon, he mentioned a couple ideas for chairs. The idea I liked that he spoke of was using seashells. I immediately thought of a dear friend, Billye Abad, who had given me many seashells over the years. She spends six months a year in Florida walking the beach and collecting the shells. I knew that I could use some of her shells and asked her to donate more shells to my cause.

"The process for making the chair included an hour long trip to JoAnne's Fabric, a lot of sanding, recovering the seat, two coats of paint, constructing the tulle bow with hand beaded seashells and glass, and a lot of arranging and gluing seashells.

"Artistically speaking, I picked a lot of my color palette from Indiana artist Douglas David. When Sean and I owned the art gallery in Culver, we met David and many others that soon became our favorites. What has always struck me about David is his ability to convey ease and calm with his color palette. I don't know if that was an achievement with this chair, but it is definitely something I was hoping to do.

"The other aspects of the chair I would like to touch upon is the conveyance of fantasy and ideas. The chair is not functional at all. In my mind the look and the idea of the chair were too important to sacrifice in order to make the chair functional. The title of the chair is important in relating the idea as well. The idea is the title which is "Monday afternoon at the Ocean" and that means to me a day off work to day dream, pickup shells, and relax."

This chair will be available to preview during Sunday's Chairs for Charity Gala, starting at 6:00 p.m. We hope you will join us for an evening of entertainment, wine reception, live auction sale of chair masterpieces like this one, along with many many more chairs to choose from!