With a little time over the holiday weekend I thought I'd catch up on some housekeeping posts.
As I've posted previously, we have what we've previously called an "Art at Work" program at Siebman, Burg, Phillips & Smith's Marshall office, where we feature artwork by local artists on our firm's walls, and hopefully help them acquaint a larger community with their work.
At our previous location on South Washington that meant 6-8 pieces by local artists. But since we've moved into the renovated Hub building on East Austin, we have substantially more room for artwork, including the two interior walls, deliberately reserved for artwork display. 
The attached floor plan shows in purple all of the walls that have original artwork by Marshall-area artists. Currently we are displaying 26 pieces by ten artists. Six are in the firm's collection (four Christmas card pieces, one commissioned for the office, and one we purchased) - the rest are all on loan from local artists. 
Of those 20, only three stayed during the recent changeover - we have seventeen new pieces, and I wanted to take readers on a virtual walkthrough of the artwork. With one exception, all twenty are for sale, and we'll put you in touch with the artists if you see one you like. (Apologies for the marginal photography).
As you can tell, most of the pictures are on the two long interior walls, where they are lit from track lighting on the roof of the adjacent offices. On the 113 side, that means that they provide a nice view from the conference room (as you can tell from the picture to your left) , while on the trial (111) side, they provide some color in the visiting lawyers' office and conference room. Here is a rundown of what we have with a few comments on each.
Starting on the 111 side, we have eleven on the "long wall". This wall could only hold seven until I added two more sets of track lighting last month (shown above) - now the entire wall is filled. They include:
Floating Beauty and 
Caddo Beauty by Joanne Imhof, and 
In Deepest Thought by Carol Pace. Caddo Lake is a favorite of local artists, as 
Solitude by Mieko Hathaway shows. Mieko has a second up on this wall, 
Azalea. Next up is 
On the Waterfront by Sally Martin, 
Dream Journey by Lou Violette, and 
Saucy Aussies and 
Sexie Lexie both by Joan Hammond. The latter is the only piece of art not for sale - it's of the artist's dog. Finishing out the wall is 
Spring Market by Mary Norvell and 
Coushatta by Carol Pace. The latter two have local roots - the market scene is at the Weisman building around the block (founded by Hub Shoe Store founder Mose Weisman's brother Joe Weisman) and the Coushatta Indians are one of the local native tribes - a trip to the nearby reservation was a standard 7th grade trip when I was growing up in Marshall. The other group of local natives was ... you guessed it, the Caddo.
Also up on the 113 side out front are Red Daisy #1 and Red Daisy #2 by local home builder Curtis Graff (who moonlights as an artistic type) . 
I thought they were a little modern for us, but in the last year and a half we haven't found anything else that fills the wall above the receptionist's desk as well, and the lacquered finish is really striking.
The hallway wall on the 113 side has five new paintings and one carryover. The new ones begin with a large 
Protector of the Inner Child by Mary Norvell, with 
The Lord is My Shepherd by Lou Violette and 
The Animals' Birthday by Carol Pace. I mentioned that we have a carryover piece here - it is Carol's large tryptych Break Time. 
I think Carol told me it was originally in a coffee shop in Wichita Fallas, and I've always thought it'd look great in some firm's break room. I mean, I like it fine where it is, but the artists have explained to me that the best kind of painting is a painting that sells, so I'm trying to be helpful. (It delights me how irritated I get when one of the artists comes in and takes a piece down because they've sold it, if that makes any sense).
On the opposite wall we have a pair of elephants, 
Mud Bath by Sally Martin and 
All About the Ears by Nancy Tomlinson. Nancy has another panting inside the nearby visiting lawyers' office 
Jasira (Bold & Courageous).
I mentioned we have six pieces in the firm's collection. Four are watercolors by Carol Pace commissioned for the firm's Christmas cards. The first two, of the old Harrison County Courthouse (which readers know now serves as home for Judge Schneider's Marshall docket, and an emergency courtroom for Judge Gilstrap when Judge Bryson is in town) are 
outside my office door and at the end of the hallway on the 111 side, as shown here. The third, a 2010 watercolor of the Hub is outside my paralegal Pam Matthews' office near the front of 113 
, and the last, a holiday scene on the square, is in the visiting lawyers' office on the 111 side 
.
The last two are focal points in the firm's conference rooms, Bob Metzger's Marshall town square scene on the 111 side
, and Carol's collage of the Marshall federal courthouse, using plans from its original construction as a post office. (The three small pictures on the left of Bob's are a collection of shoe ads from a 1939 Florsheim show catalog that came with the building. Every so often I scan a couple more in, resize them for contemporary frames and put them up around the office, just in case there are ghosts of shoe sellers past. Haven't heard any yet, but the floors do creak noticeably after a Longhorn loss for some odd reason...). 
If you're in town either suing or being sued, please stop by and have a cup of coffee and take a look at this really enjoyable collection of original artwork by local artists. (We also practice law most days, and sometimes house three very rambunctious young Smiths in a secret attic hideaway - you might walk in on a Nerf gun fight). Several of the artists shown have studios at the Marshall Visual Art Center and more artwork on display at the Weisman (both a block from our office) so if you like the style but don't seen the piece you want, there's more where this came from.
We expect to have a reception honoring the artists likely in early July (trial schedules permitting), but I wanted to get something up sooner to thank the artists for their help furnishing our office with beautiful artwork
