A recently completed office building was beaming with shiny “newness” but lacked personality or focal points. I met with the client to review the areas that needed artwork and to propose a plan that would complement the space and help the owners differentiate their building from competitors.

One of my favorite things to do, besides the actual painting, is to create pieces that can work with, compliment and transform a space.

In this instance, the lobby was devoid of any focal points or color except for a prominent pattern found in swivel chairs in two areas. The rear lobby had colorful orange chairs to work into the composition.

For the largest seating area in the front lobby, my answer was to create prominent drip paintings with separate but coordinated colors for the area over a gray couch (one with a black background and the other green). Since the largest tenant in the building was one of the largest accounting firms in the county, I called the black painting “In the Black” and the green version was “Money Green”.

The smaller seating area needed a painting behind the chairs and given the close proximity to the geometric patterns of the chairs, this called for a muted composition. A painting I named "Soft Horizon" was created with texture and coordinating colors.

The back hallway is now infused with lively, color-block paintings which compliment the mid-century color scheme of the adjacent chairs by the elevators. This series is called “Piece of Cake 1, 2 & 3”. The name is homage to their playfulness as well as providing a collective cheer when passing through the hallway on a workday with perhaps a long to-do list.