When Art and Love Collide: Brian and Alisa Murray


300-alisa-brianBy Minerva Pérez
Photos by Heather Ingram of Alisa Murray Photography.
Styling by Fallon Pizarro of Kiss my Bootyque –

Amazing is not a strong enough word to describe Fort Bend County’s most artistic couple, Brian and Alisa Murray of Alisa Murray Photography. The power couple has established a reputation for capturing adorable children, expectant mommies and, most notably, newborns for nearly 20 years. Their unique style and talents with a camera lens has been honed for years to create a signature brand known and sought after internationally.

The Alisa Murray Brand

Alisa and Brian Murray.

Alisa and Brian Murray.

The Alisa Murray brand offers the very best in Fine Art Photography by dedicating a true artistic eye to photography and by building sustainable, professional relationships. A loyal clientele that includes celebrity families, legacy clients and many friends and neighbors have made the solo practice feel more like family.

Alisa Murray Photography has its lens trained on a client family’s life journey starting with the beginning of life, birthdays, special holidays and other major milestones. Alisa documents it all in portraiture with egg hunts, visits to the pumpkin patch, sitting with Santa and other moments to remember. Clients receive a very unique and personal experience by being invited into her cozy, artsy and oh so interesting home for photo sessions. Children get to snuggle with Alisa’s pets and eat special treats from her very own kitchen. Parents get to roam her house as if in a museum. A visit to Alisa’s studio is unlike anything else. There, true passion and inspiration are rooted.

“Alisa’s attention to detail and creativeness is by far the best I have seen in the photography industry,” said Fort Bend mom Allyson Huston. “She is a master at her craft, and her unique approach and hysterical personality makes you laugh and gets those perfect smiles every time! She puts her heart and soul into what she does and captures the true love and feelings in every photo. It is artwork, and I have a house full to prove it!”

A Family of Artists

Known for her newborn photography, Alisa Murray’s artwork hangs in Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital and Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital.

Known for her newborn photography, Alisa Murray’s artwork hangs in Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital and Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital.

Brian and Alisa’s partnership goes back to grade school. They love what they do and keep their clientele close by making them part of the family. Married 27 years, the couple is grateful for the loyalty and trust from their long list of clients who return year after year to document their family legacy in pictures and portraits for generations to come.

Think of the couple as “Lucy and Desi,” meaning one cannot work without the other. They finish each other’s sentences in business and are good friends who work together in tandem to create their unique photography style. Alisa is the eye on the camera, while Brian is the magician who puts it all together. As Alisa likes to say, she creates and shoots and becomes “Auntie A” to all of her clients, and Brian magically transforms her images into that signature, stylized brand.

Together, they document memories of a lifetime. “If I create a beautiful image, it is not a finished piece of art without Brian’s behind-the-scenes artistry. It’s that magical and rarely seen partnership between us, dependent on the other, that make my images timeless and worthy of wearing the trademarked Alisa brand.”

Alisa uses fresh ingredients from her garden to create her own favorite recipes.

Alisa uses fresh ingredients from her garden to create her own favorite recipes.

That brand and style now have a following across the globe. Clients fly in from all over the world to get the special photo shoots and fine art photography they can only find in the Alisa Murray studios set in the woodsy part of rural Fort Bend County. “At first I thought it was strange to have people coming from everywhere, but then I realized we are everywhere thanks to the Internet,” Alisa said. “It has allowed all businesses to become globally recognized. This has really been outstanding for artists such as ourselves. It’s a wonderful honor that our work is proudly displayed in the homes of families all across America and all over the world.”

As with most artists, Alisa and Brian’s work is an extension of how they live. Their children are artistic in their own right. Their daughter, Victoria Ann, is both a song writer and a painter, and their son, James Edward, is an eloquent writer and paints and sketches as well. They make their home and studio a fun place to visit. Young clients can find drums, guitars and painting easels all within reach. A modern-day Renaissance woman, Alisa is a classically trained artist, and whether it’s a camera, a paintbrush, her computer or even a spatula in the kitchen, she naturally goes the extra mile to make it perfect no matter which medium she chooses.

Beyond Photography

More than a photographer, Alisa is an artist and author and is known as having a “larger than life” personality in her community and all throughout the fastest-growing county in the country: Fort Bend. Her generosity and philanthropy is admired. Alisa always has some new community project on her plate.

Some of Alisa’s work is featured in two permanent exhibitions at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital and at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital. “Everyone knows you have to have a passion for what you do, and there is nothing more important to me than a photograph. When my mother was killed, I was eight years old, and pictures were all I had left. They are precious to me. Pictures create memories. Oh there’s money and diamonds too, of course, but that will not leave the legacy that my Wall of Life will. Capturing families, grandparents and pets – the things that make up one’s life – is what is most important and why I have allowed that to guide my life’s work.”

Alisa has served her community in many ways and mediums over the years. For example, her Breast Cancer Survivor calendars and her work capturing pictures and stories of cancer-stricken children in India are just a few. “I wanted to leave the children in India with the most important gift – a portrait of themselves – and I did it. Watching those babies run around with what would maybe be the only picture they’d ever perhaps have was a great joy. I felt like I was leaving a little piece of me right there.”

Alisa’s paintings are also a labor of love. Though not offering a vast body of work, she finishes a few paintings each year. “Once I discussed having a show and perhaps selling some of them, but my children quickly grew possessive of that part of my artistic work. Each of them has secretly laid claim to the paintings they want to take when I am gone. Funny how children observe their environment and have opinions we don’t know as parents until the subject comes up. I had never realized how attached they had become to that part of my work.”

Alisa Murray studios and her home are filled to the brim with art. Perhaps the Alisa style is more like Guadí meets Texas Chic? Walls in her studio/home combo are painted in funky, artistic ways, and there is nothing there that the couple or their children have not created themselves. “I often feel, even though I have spent many hours there, it’s as if I am always seeing something new. The walls are filled with paintings and beautifully captured fine art photography.”

A Writer’s Legacy

200-alisabookAs if photography and art aren’t enough, Alisa is also an award-winning writer. Her monthly Living the Sweet Life column for Fort Bend Focus Magazine has been published since 2006. The column delights readers with Alisa’s childhood memories, some of which make them cry and laugh out loud in ways only Alisa can do. This year, Alisa’s plate is full as she awaits the release of two books: What to REALLY Expect When You’re Married! will debut on Amazon this spring, and Auntie A’s Little Book of Shoulds and Should Nots! will be available in the fall.

“The years I’ve spent capturing my clients has given me ample opportunity to listen to each of my families who ultimately become good, close friends. While I’m shooting away with my camera, we talk about everything. I have given advice, more than I can remember, on marriage and parenting, and I’ve shared my own experiences as well. Marriage isn’t easy, but it can be a wonderful experience, and I adore my Brian. I adore my children. I adore my friendships and want everyone who I get the opportunity to touch to be uplifted and inspired by what I can give to them whether it is advice, a piece of art, my friendship or all of that.

“The book on marriage is what I hope to be a well of advice on what to do right and how to fall in love and grow more deeply in love as the years go by. It always saddens me when I see people and families of divorce. I’m hoping to be able to inspire others to work at cultivating a mindful life and to live deeply and fully with love for everyone in their lives.

“My Should and Should Nots has come out of necessity,” laughed Alisa. “My two kids and each of my ‘babies’ who I have made mine as their portrait artist have asked me for advice on just about everything through the years from how to tie their shoes to how to garden. Some even ask about dating or being bullied. They share things they wouldn’t share with their parents. That’s why they call me Auntie A. They are comfortable telling me things, and more importantly, they are listening. So this little guidebook allows me to leave them with advice about all sorts of things. I figure this way they will always have my opinion on ‘stuff,’ and they can take that and give it to their children when they grow up and become mommies and daddies themselves. I see this as just another extension of my legacy and life’s work in sharing and taking care of people.”

“Everyone becomes family with Alisa,” Huston said. “She welcomed my daughter and me into her home and family since day one. Her loving relationship with her husband since grade school is a testament to her loving, kind and generous heart. Alisa Murray is truly one of a kind!”

Alisa Murray Photography can be reached at www.alisamurray.com or 713-598-2207