Oil on canvas

2009

60.5”x45.5”

There is a coffee house in my hometown called Jules in which I spent many happy hours with friends chatting and doing homework. While in college I tried desperately to find a Jules surrogate, testing out each of the local coffee shops in turn but none of them, including Babb’s Coffee House, had quite the atmosphere I was looking for.

Despite the bright colors used in this painting, there is a cold detachment to its subjects as they work. I was also experimenting with negative and positive space as I packed the bottom and left edges of the painting with arms and coats and computers while filling the upper right of the canvas with flat color washes.