Conception, Creative Direction, Design

In 2011, Melissa founded Seymour Projects as a collective inquiry into contemplative and creative experience in contemporary life, exploring, in part, how states of consciousness, connection, and presence are impacted by technology and other societal conditions. For the past 15 years, she has guided its vision and led the conception, design and production of its work.

Her largest, most renowned project to date SEYMOUR+ | A Spa For The Mind, was located in Paris, France from 2014 to 2017. Created ahead of a broader tech-free movement, this 2,500sq ft, two-story, loft-style space offered five environments designed to support introspection, reflection, emotional processing and divine play. The original description can be found here and a brief overview of the life of the space can be accessed here. A modular, next-generation version is currently being developed in collaboration with designer Corey Stevens, architect Michael Etzel and Dr. Stephen Porges, PhD who generously lent his clinical perspective. 

Melissa was also Editor-in-Chief of Seymour Magazine overseeing its evolution into an influential independent publication with a devoted readership. In support of the Seymour Projects mission, she also produced public programs, educational videos, co-created limited edition objects, published books and led private & group workshops focused on creative and contemplative practice.

Seymour Projects has been internationally recognized for its contributions.

Visual Art

As an Intuitive Artist, Melissa’s visual art explores consciousness through material experimentation across painting, sculpture, textiles, photography and assemblage. This life-long investigation has in recent years, evolved into a structured artistic practice.

From 2019-2022 she maintained a daily ritual of making a watercolor each morning, resulting in over 1,000 works on paper. These abstract paintings in which she documents her shifting inner landscape and explores non-ordinary perceptual states are available to view in her archive. During this period she also explored impressionistic illustration.

In 2026, embracing her spiritual name, she established MORAH. Through this project she expands her practice to explore the intersection of gender, spiritual autonomy, and the cultural construction of value. MORAH also functions as an online space presenting a curated selection of her works available for acquisition and offers a glimpse into her studio.

Throughout her career, she has also participated in numerous collaborations and her visual art has been featured on a variety of goods, including the cover of the pop/rock band Nada Surf’s album Never Not Together and companion EP Cycle Through.

Written Works

As an author, Melissa’s written work spans fiction, essay and memoir, often serving as a parallel space of philosophical inquiry and experimentation alongside her visual and spatial practice.

50, waves a recently completed memoir of personal reclamation told in mytho-poetic form, includes an afterword by chaplain & feminist bible scholar Elizabeth Berne DeGear, PhD. Pending print publication as an Artist’s Book/limited edition, it is offered here as a free digital download intended for contemplative use within therapeutic, recovery, educational, or spiritual contexts.

In 2021, she authored and self-published Hic et Nunc a handbook offering guidance on how to shape a daily creative spiritual practice. Available here and at Cardinal in Brooklyn.

Her novel GAG, an exploration of identity, perception and transformation, was published by Roundfire Books in 2014. Available here and wherever books are sold.

Earlier fiction includes: Acoustic Set, a collection of fictional coming-of-age tales written in 2008, selected excerpts were published in the literary journals Entasis and Belleville Park Pages. To access a free download of the collection, click here.

Additional personal essays and articles can be found in various online magazines and blogs.

Advisory & Mentorship

Melissa has maintained a discrete advisory practice for more than 30 years. Serving creatives, cultural leaders and social entrepreneurs, she applies her professional experience, research, personal journey and perceptual capacities to support individuals navigating complexity, decision-making, and change. She also mentors emerging artists and young professionals.

Areas of Research

Melissa engages in self-directed, practice-based research rooted in interdisciplinary study and lived experience which is then synthesized and expressed through her art and work. Areas of research include: metaphysics, theology, psychology and sociocultural anthropology, with an emphasis on therapeutic practices, visionary experience, liminality and the dissolution of structure during threshold states. Jungian Principles and Transpersonal Psychology have also deeply informed her practice.

Her most recent research focus is on religious and vernacular architecture with particular attention to sacred space, symbolic structures, and their role in shaping collective and individual consciousness. She is also exploring the Divine Feminine and new offline models for social cohesion.

Groups & Communities

Melissa is a proponent of the Intentional Spaces Initiative and International Arts + Mind Lab Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at Johns Hopkins University.

Her current spiritual education is actively enriched by teachings and conversations with Imam Khalil Abdullah, Assistant Dean for Muslim Life at Princeton University. She also participates in Oxford University scholar Tamás Dávid Barrett’s evolutionary behavioral science discussion group Human Beast & poet Jan Noble’s existential conversation club Angeli D’Inferno.

Melissa has led sessions and moderated talks at numerous professional gatherings. She is a member of the Kinnernet and DLD communities and a supporter of the National Museum of Women in the Arts & New York Peace Institute.