The History of Bruce Marc Design

From Hollywood to Museums to your Living Room

According to relatives, Bruce Marc Zahlava had his hands in art not too long after birth.

Venturing on what was to become a wonderful journey, his career began shortly after his first television interview at age sixteen. At age seventeen, while still in high school, he worked on his first feature film through the recommendation of Academy Award winning artist, Dick Smith.

Upon acceptance and attendance at a prestigious art school in Southern California, Bruce made a conscious decision to leave and chase his first love – the Hollywood Film/Commercial industry (and yes, at the time his parents were "thrilled" with his decision). More importantly, Bruce wanted to be mentored and work with the artists and designers he had admired since he was a child.

And that's exactly what he did.

A very short list of these people includes: Dick Smith, Roy Christopher (multiple Emmy Award wining set designer), Duane Hanson (Internationally recognized artist whom Bruce studied with), Rick Baker (multiple Academy Award winning artist), and Marc Davis (one of Disney's original artists/animators).

After nearly twelve years of working with an incredible array of enormously talented people and designing, painting, sculpting, fabricating, and lighting some "wonderfully cool stuff" (and occasionally some "not so cool stuff") Hollywood's charm wore off. After his cast contract (A Fox Television Pilot "Ghost Writer", starring Tony Perkins where Bruce served as Associate Producer and Designer), he decided to return to the East Coast and experiment in new ways and with new venues utilizing many of the skills he refined in California.

"Precision Decorative Art & Design" was born in the mid-nineties with an emphasis on improving decorative art elements for interiors. Clients included Boston Design Center, Ralph Lauren Gallery, Osterville Designer Showcase to name a few as well as numerous residential commercial clients.

In 2001, after the death of his father, Bruce temporarily closed his business in order to take some time off and reengineer his product.

During this time, Bruce switched gears and started to sub-contract with one of the largest scenic companies on the East Coast, Mystic Scenic Studios, Inc. Contracts he directly contributed to include the Lord of The Rings exhibit (at The Museum of Science), The Democratic National Convention stage set, The Boston Pops 4th of July Set, The Star Wars exhibit (at The Museum of Science), Monty Python's Spam-A-Lot stage set to name a few. He has also recently been appointed to travel several times a year (as Mystic's only Representative) with the Government's Chandra Space Telescope Exhibit – The world's most advanced X-Ray satellite telescope (yes, he "hangs" with rocket scientists!)

During this period, Bruce Marc Design was born in an effort to deal directly with clients, their interiors, and continuously raise the stakes in the decorative art field.