Fun Friday: Office Art

Comments (Archived):

1. An Alberta landscape by our friend Wendy Wacko ( real name ) who is influenced by her friend Doris McCarthy – http://en.m.wikipedia.org/w…

2. @fredwilson:disqus Sorry if i missed the point – But what is the difference between this and a screen-saver (other than that a screen-saver has a purpose) ?

3. Is this office art or office distraction?

   1. Good point. In addition, there is something about it that I find it grating on the nerves, actually.

   2. Is that a meta question about this blog ? 😉 – Bit of both -AVC = empathetic experience learning by not doing !

   3. Yeah I agree with the distraction. I was thinking of putting in a lcd frame and loading it with pictures but didn’t for that reason.

4. V. cool digital Lava lamp.

5. Margaret Bourke-WhiteDC-4 flying over NYC, 1939 (Platinum print)She was in another DC-4 above this one taking the shot.She is a personal hero of mine. Amazing women & ground breaking artist. Been over my desk in two countries, 8 cities for 20 years. Thrills me every day on a number of levels.

6. This is ‘Dream’ by Eugenio Tomiolo, one of the leading post-WW2 figurative artists.I posted it along with his other works and art critics’ reviews of his work onto a website a few years ago: http://www.tomiolo.net/flip…

7. just because.

   1. sweet

   2. I don’t get half of his stuff, but I love almost all of it.If I was Fred, I would pay him an annual stipend to break into the AVC office and do murals.

8. Dancing Walrus by Pudlaluk Shaa, Cape Dorset, Nunavut. Pudlalik is the son of a very highly regarded sculptor – Aqjangajuk – but has a unique, Art Deco style. My wife and I like original Canadian art & I have a home office – I could post a lot of pics today!

9. #WinZone entrance. Has “Easter egg” elements of all our key partners and startup friends

10. I’m more fascinated by the claret color on the separator panels.Does it trigger the temptation to have a glass of red wine handy? At least your office isn’t “Industrial Chic” or “Private Member’s Clubby with leather sofas”!

11. Truly living office art.#samthecat with sparkle ball on laptop.

    1. This wins, hands down!

       1. samthecat simple rules!

    2. You are crushing it

       1. Sam is crushing the keyboard 🙂

          1. Sam has locked the laptop up in impossible ways innumerable times. There is an open account at Apple online support with his name on it;)A piece of Sam created locked laptop art below.

    3. I would love to have a cat at the office. But I fear it would be to much of a distraction.

       1. Love having Sam around.Considering moving to an office outside of the home part time and not having Sam is making it a bigger decision.

          1. My daughter is moving to a new place in the city. So we are getting her a kitten. But I want to keep the kitten a few weeks before turning it over. She is giving me a hard time on that so I will only have it for a day or three. (The cat we have at home is about 19 I think. I call her zen “kitty” because she just sits and rarely moves..)I am guessing you don’t want to have to bring the cat back and forth not that you can’t have one in the office that you would rent?I could easily have even a little dog here as well. There is a big open space right next to my office. But once again, distraction is what I am trying to avoid.

             1. Old cats are so Yoda like. I’ve had two over 21. Super lucky.

             2. I am allergic unfortunately. The co-work space I invested in is dog friendly. (Nextspace.us)

             3. I like pets in the workspace a great deal.Consulted to a company that had an office cat. Beyond cool to me.

12. I work across the street from MailChimp (so technically not art in _my_ office) but I’m a bit jealous of the work they’ve done in their new home: http://www.slate.com/blogs/…

13. Got this in Bali. Kind of a famous artist there. Some of his stuff is in museums. But, he charges by the meter for his paintings. Bigger they are, the more expensive-and they aren’t expensive.

14. Brightpearl had a graffiti artist spray a rad 30ft wide mural on our wall, featuring scenes of Bristol (our UK HQ).https://www.facebook.com/Br…

    1. sweet

15. Sherpa Foundry (Shervin Pishevar, Scott Stanford, Tina Sharkey) got the graffiti artist Zio Ziegler to create this for their office space.

16. Great topic! Thanks to everyone for sharing.

17. This is ‘Man in Motion’ by the American sculptor, James Moore, and it’s on my wishlist for office space.

18. Had ths one for awhile.Chaos: Where brilliant dreams are born

    1. .Get the tattoo, Tommie boy.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

19. An original watercolor by one of my past employees hangs in my office. He was a significant contributor to my team but needed flexibility to keep his life whole. Three different periods of employment, some full time, some part time. It serves as a reminder that flexibility is harder to manage but worth it in the long run, from both sides. Ironically, I had no idea he had this talent until I left the company and he presented this as a parting gift.

    1. Thinking of implementing some form of “show and tell” as we grow – some of our team have such cool hobbies ranging from 3d printing, acceleraometer based, car crash web recorder hack, to a drone operated “stick” with gopro tracking for “assisted dog selfies”.Sharing lives not just work keeps teams together

    2. He’s talented

20. Collaborative work between a 5 years old kid drawing and [colored by] her mother.

21. I commissioned this from my then 16 year old daughter when she wasn’t finding a summer job many years ago. It makes me smile, even if it’s a hard day at the office.

    1. .Real talent. Well played and well done!JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

22. flashback: people had those for their giant stereo speakers

23. Every stealth startup should have one of these…

    1. I admire the Italian in you

    2. that’s awesome

24. Thanks for sharing it, Fred! Looks great

    1. sure does and so does the art

25. I have a bunch of old photographs of Belgrade framed. These hail from the tail end of the 1930s just before the start of WWI. They showcase some of the most iconic anchor buildings in the city — and all remain standing today.

    1. love these and thanks for sharing.huge fan of classical photography.

26. Jeff Koons sculpture Balloon Rabbit (Red) in the lobby of our building

27. Phoenician art- Gilded bronze statuettes. (representative of the Bronze Age, 18-19th century BC)

28. .Chinese bonds from the late 1800s — early 1900s for railroads and other infrastructure projects. Collect them. Bought most of these in Paris in an investment bank’s basement. They are all defaulted but a few years ago the Chinese redeemed some of them. They are printed in 3-4 languages and have the coupons folded up on the back.The artwork is all engraved and they are incredible up close.Now, the couch? That is the international HQ of my studies in sleeping.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

    1. ah, i thought these were all your diplomas 🙂

    2. Bear Stears bought RR bonds during WWII when they had suspended dividends and were nationalized. A great call..

    3. I am noticing what appears to be fading on the right part of the couch because of the proximity to a window? I would be a bit concerned about degredation those certificates over time. Years ago I did a bit of research [1] on ink fading for some work that was needed at the time (lawn signs) and discovered how different colors fade in different patterns (you’ve probably seen this with posters in dry cleaners windows as only one example or even on carpeting…).[1] As opposed to today when you can just take a second and do a google search.

       1. .The couch is twenty years old and was always a little muted but it definitely has sun damage. I love that couch and I wouldn’t let anyone mess with it. It used to have arm covers but they have disappeared.There is glass over those bonds and one or two of them are worth a whole lot of money.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          1. Unclear whether you have regular glass or UV protecting glass. It’s really worth investing in good 99% UV protection framing glass for those prints you wish to protect properly.

          2. By the way I ran the “fraud” by my former federal prosecutor (also engaged to a federal judge) attorney. His immediate reaction was negative just like yours. But he then basically agreed that if the transaction was structured a bit differently (based on an idea that I had) he would see little or less problem with it. That said it’s to late to restate the transaction so for now the idea is dead. Dead why? Because it has now been hexed and the upside simply is not clear or positive enough so it pays to just drop it.That said much of business involves taking calculated risks. When I asked who would bring action he brought up a few academic possibilities but nothing that was anywhere close to reality, taking in account the size and the particular parties involved.In a sense this is like the business equivalent of an incidental finding in medicine. Something that could lay dormant and you might never die of, but once you know about it you can’t act like you don’t know what the risks are or that there could be a slim chance of a downside. It’s actually one of the reasons that I think that people running businesses that have law degrees are at a disadvantage rather than an advantage because the large majority of things that could happen, never happen.

    4. Those crown moldings are also art.

       1. .I am a crown molding freak — “upside down and backwards” — and love the detail of trim and wainscoting.This house was renovated by a man with whom I had one of the closest friendships of my entire adult life. Like a war friendship. He died a year after the house was done.I was sick with hepatitis when we bought a single story house in the neighborhood we had to live in — gutted it, put a second story on it and expanded it.I recovered from hepatitis on that couch and did most of the good work I did in my life in that office. It looks down on the pool, the fireplace and the patio.I love that office.What does “upside down and backwards” mean?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          1. I am a crown molding freak — “upside down and backwards”I appreciate and enjoy your appreciation.Re: http://www.woodworkersjourn…Anyway who says money can’t buy happiness? [1][1] Ben Afleck line is “Boiler Room”https://www.youtube.com/wat…

             1. .Great clip. Love it.Nobody with a brain ever says that money can’t “rent” happiness.I have a degree in engineering. I took seven semesters of calculus. I built high rise office buildings.It took me a month to figure out “upside down and backwards” when installing crown molding. A carpenter taught me. It is one of the real mysteries of life.It separates the men from the boys.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

             2. Every photo of your office back up your obsession. Love it.

             3. It seems coping crown with a jig saw also separates the men from the boys…but then again some think of it as just showing off…

             4. .Got to do a bit of both, no?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

             5. Always, keeps it interesting, challenges the status quo and the client gets a better job.

             6. Underrated Ben Affleck effort.Casting him in that role is the perfect flip to the Good Will Hunting role – you can almost see that construction worker turning into this guy.Those two roles are the essence of what people see in him.

    5. The “pay window” guy frames money or money vehicles – Nice!

       1. .You have to respect the pay window. You have to live the pay window.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

       2. Pretty pay windows too, b/c he has taste!

29. .Bow your head, bend your knee — that is a baseball signed by Mickey Mantle. No 7 on the Yankees and my favorite baseball player of all time.I met him playing golf at Barton Creek Country Club in the ATX several months before he died in 1995. We both shot at a par 3 and he gave me this for being inside his shot.My daughter and his granddaughter went to Camp Longhorn together and I got to meet his wife through that connection.Even in his 60’s, he was a stud.Most of y’all are too young to know but there was a time that giants walked the earth — Mickey was one of them.When I can’t decide what to do, I look at that ball and I think “What would Mickey do?” He would crack that freakin’ ball out of the park (and then go get a drink).JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

    1. My uncle drove a milk truck in the Bronx and live down the street from Yankee Stadium.I sat in the bleechers more times and with more glee than I can remember.This is the link to the 1964 rooster that informed my early childhood.Heroes here a plenty. Truly a squad of giants.http://www.baseball-almanac…

       1. Prob had all of their baseball cards! What a line up! I remember my 1st game attending Yankee Stadium. Albertson Little league…Roma Cafe. Our seats were buried deep into the upper deck in left field behind one of those support beams (prior to stadium renovation). Years later when I worked in sports my company had 4 box seats in the 1st row off home plate. Sat in those seats when W threw out the 1st pitch in the first post 9/11 WS game. Emotional day, for sure. I also luckily played softball a couple of times in the original stadium, and somewhere I have a pix of me making a call from the Yankees’ dugout phone to the bullpen. And just for the record, I’m a Mets’ fan 🙂

          1. Great share and thanks.Yup lots of cards!Although it was before anyone collected them. We bought them, traded them, connected them to our bikes with clothes pins to make noise.Cool memories.

          2. The Mets ruined my childhood in 1969

             1. Ha, I feel for you, I really, really do. Been to Wrigley a few times. (The company I worked for had killer seats there, too). One time it was “Bill Buckner Day.” The irony of seeing a player revered in one city who’s considered a pariah in another (Boston) wasn’t lost on me. Wrigley (like Fenway) is a special place. The “new” Yankee Stadium doesn’t have the same aura.

    2. One of the first great athletes I read about, around the same time I got fascinated by Jim Thorpe. MM was a total class act.

       1. .He was kind of a tragic figure — small town kid (Spanivaw, Okla — you know where that is, right?) overwhelmed by the biggest of big cities.His drinking was a curse that kept him from achieving who knows what? Finally, killed him.He was one of the stars in the Yankee constellation — Babe Ruth #3, Lou Gehrig #4, Joe DiMaggio #5. Mick’s first number was #6 until he changed to #7.It was his power as a switch hitter that made him so dangerous.He was fast as Hell and his time (3.1 seconds) from home to first — batting left handed with a swing — has still never been equaled even without a swing.He was also a Golden Glove fielder.He was a giant.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          1. I didn’t realize was such a small town (pop. under 500?!)…never been there just heard the name once or twice. It was the fielding & running that stuck out to me, the power of Ted Williams + a heck of a lot of hustle. I’m not particularly a NYY fan, but the 51ish to late 60s were a tremendous group.

    3. I worked in sports for many years. I had dinner w/ two of Mick’s kids a few years ago. Sat next to Danny, who is a spitting image of his dad. The family lived mostly in Oklahoma during Mick’s heyday, and the boys were frankly a bit too young to appreciate and experience their dad’s fame during his playing days. As has been well documented, Mick’s kids struggled w/ substance abuse, no doubt, in part, from the pressures of growing up with the Mantle name and legacy. I asked Danny when he realized how iconic his dad truly was. He said he always knew, but it really hit home when he attended Old Timers Day at the stadium one year with his 8 or 10 yr old daughter, Mick’s granddaughter, and she was besieged by fans for her autograph. Crazy.

       1. .I bet that was the granddaughter my daughter knew from Camp Longhorn.She was a tall, sweet girl.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

30. Fred, isn’t one of your daughters an artist? Do you have any of her works in your office?

31. The “Sales Whisperer”. Pick up at a flea market in 2000. He’s been dispensing his sales wisdom ever since.

32. R/GA has some really cool art.The office has a few real Henry Darger and some of the most spooky and fascinating outsider artist artwork. I’ll snap a pic if I swing by the main building later today.

33. A painting that my wife did for me. It was some kind of afternoon art shop that she went to with friends one weekend where everyone is assigned to paint the same image..

34. Who can forget Berkeley Systems, “After Dark” and Flying Toasters?https://youtu.be/22NyKD0M4rchttp://en.wikipedia.org/wik…

35. We have a Solyndra Solar Panel hanging in our office as art and as a sign of excess that we want to avoid. I’m traveling today and don’t have a pic of it, so here’s a stock photo. It has a bronze plaque reminding us that we as tax payers lost $750mm+ on it and quotes by Ronald Reagan: “In America, if it moves we tax it, if it keeps moving we regulate it and if it stops moving, we subsidize it.” and Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

    1. .Solyndra, one of the most corrupt and incompetent things ever done in the history of gov’t.Well played.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

36. Don’t have any. We’ll see what I do eventually. I dislike sitting in one place when working

37. ‘Falling In Love’ Canvas

38. Art can be anything [1]I also keep a collection of customer payment envelopes [2] as I have an appreciation of a nicely designed envelope. For that matter I actually collect and keep almost all envelopes even rather ordinary ones.[1] Even, as I’ve mentioned, well built steel shelving which is of my favorites..[2] Surprise plenty of companies still pay by check in 2015…

39. Some FAKEGRIMLOCK posters in @ticketabc office!

    1. that’s great

40. I have these to remind myself of what we always have (choice) and that the world needs our contribution – for times of doubt.I make them.Fred, if it’s ok with you I’d love to send one your way that reminds me of you.

41. my office wall in Parma, Italy; my heroes 😉 how many can you recognize? how many do you share as heroes? 😉 https://www.facebook.com/ph…

    1. To me all I see is (what looks like) Bezos and Zuckerberg. Mac seems smaller than normal sitting on the table..

    2. Bezos, Fermi, Earhart on left column; middle two rows Jobs Einstein (?), Ali, Zuckerberg in two middle ones, the rest are pretty hard to see.Recommender-engine fun: if these are correct guesses, should we be able to figure likely guesses for the rest of them?…Gates? Oppenheimer? Google Photos do your work!

42. We had this mural painted in our office by the guys over at http://1amsf.comNew York, where Looksharp started, Seattle where we moved after graduation, SF where we are now, culminating in a rising phoenix.

43. I’ve got the colonel on the kitchen wall. 3 feet x 4 feet.

    1. that’s awesome. i have Gilligan on my office wall.

44. Salon style melange of lots of art at home. The middle row is my daughter’s, pantherkitty, from ages 9-12. My favorite piece is the copy of Wayne Thiebaud’s Yellow Dress. She will be a better draftswoman than her RISD mother for sure!We have yet to get the hanging hardware I want for the wall – too expensive for startup budget…

    1. love it

       1. Thanks Fred. It will be so much better when hung right.

45. I want to like this post 1 million times.I have two of these that carry with them great memories of seeing the show, itself, and then peeling these posters off of a construction zone wall later that night. Oh the feels every time I see it!Enjoyed so much seeing everybody else’s shares 🙂

46. This is what’s still on my Meural digital frame.

    1. my partner Albert likes Meural better than Electric Objects. i can see why now

47. Joey Roth’s “Charlatan, Martyr, Hustler” hangs in the Level office. First thing I ever framed with Level when it was a 5 week-old MVP.

48. Lawrence of Arabia Poster, Japanese Purple Rain Poster, and a map of Harper’s Ferry.

49. A few favorites, including the illustration that my avatar came from, but this is currently #1.If you’ve spent time in Seattle, you’ll recognize the name Henry from murals and street art around the city. Turns out he also went to high school with my wife, and I got her this painting of two otters for our anniversary a few years ago. We’ll be married for 10 years in June (together for 19!)

50. this is one awesome comment section 🙂

51. I think those desk tops and cabinet fronts look great! That’s a nice space.

52. Hi Fred, you should check our collection on EO > https://www.electricobjects… 🙂

53. If I collected art, I would buy Jennie Traill Schaeffer’s painting of the pistachio-colored KitchenAid blender. Bottom right, here: http://www.traillworks.com/…

54. exactly

55. It is one of those things that is good for anyone new coming into the office essentially “a conversation piece” to get positive feedback.I have other things that fall into that same category. One is a balcony on a building. People are so obsessed with balconies. But you rarely see people using them. I own a place with a balcony with a really nice view (of the back bay sunrise the whole works…and fireworks when they have them). Everybody freaks out when they step out on the balcony. To me, the thrill wore off in a few years. It’s more thrilling to hear other people get excited about it then to actually experience it yourself.

56. OK – I read the website and I get it now – Thanks CharlieI once wrote a “fractal art generator” that allows a user with palette colour , parameter selection to “paint” fractal ferns / trees rocks etc” . I did this to impress a girl (I was geek well before geek was cool) and it worked .I imagine implemented with touch sensitive interaction on a smart phone to feed a wall print via the back end api it could be a really cool concept. You could share art or just build at homeVery cool

57. Boy, we are a sour bunch here for sure! (I am including myself…)