Jules Larson Gives Shubert A Splash Of Color

Artist Jules Larson stood in the lobby of the Shubert with Anthony Lupinacci, the theater’s director of public relations, and Lew Michaels, the theater’s director of operations. Together they were taking a long look at the art adorning the walls of the theater’s lobby, big canvases of swirling, vivid color that were enlivening the space even as the lights were off while the lobby was closed.

Lupinacci thought he saw the comedy-tragedy masks in Larson’s design. Had she intended to put them there?

“No!” said Larson, delighted. ​“But I see it.”

It would have been apt for Larson to have included the masks, because she had painted many of them specifically to be installed in the lobby of the Shubert Theatre on College Street. Larson’s work appeared there under the aegis of Art25, a New Haven-based ​“collaboration of artists that seeks create accessible art and art experiences through partnerships with local businesses,” according to its mission statement. As Larson put it, Art25 was ​“set up to create more spaces for artists to show their work.” For Larson, the Shubert was ​“the holy grail, the creme de la creme.”

The 28-year-old New Haven-based artist moved to the Elm City when she was 11; ​“I’ve lived in every neighborhood in New Haven,” she said, except Westville. She was enamored of painting by the time she was 12. She ​“started thinking of myself as a painter at 16, when I sold my first painting. There was an element of validation, but also a sense of ​‘I have to figure this out.’” Not just artistically, but financially. She went to ECA for high school and studied with Zachary Keeting, ​“the one who made me go for concept art,” she said. Keeting showed Larson how to create the kinds of effects with paint that can seem almost ​“magical,” Larson said.

Larson also learned to develop a strong work ethic. ​“It doesn’t matter if you’re a genius,” she said. ​“You just need to produce.”

Larson did. In earlier shows at coffeeshops, Larson said, ​“there was a lot of experimentation — things I hadn’t worked out that I worked out for this show.”

She got involved with Art25. Her first show with the group was at Shake Shack. Her pieces caught the eye of Michaels when he stopped in for a bite to eat.

“We had these great, white walls,” Michaels said of the Shubert lobby. He saw Larson’s pieces and contacted Art25. ​“I was into the idea of putting art where people go,” he said. ​“People are always coming here — why not add art?” This is the Shubert’s third installation; it will be up for three to four months.

“The pop of color, the freshness,” Michaels said when asked how the art changed the lobby. ​“There’s that half-hour before the show, and I see a lot of heads looking up.”

“I got to give thanks to the Shubert,” Larson said. ​“They didn’t think of this in a business sense. It was about culture.” In mentioning the way the Shubert pulls in everyone from suburbanites to school groups, she said ​“they see everyone and don’t want to pick a side. They want to help everyone.”

To make the pieces for the Shubert installation, Larson used a mix of materials, from oil paint to spray paint to a mix of paints of different bases, ​“which usually isn’t a great idea,” but she ​“figured out a way to make them work together.” Why make it harder on herself? ​“I want to find new ways of painting,” she said.

She kept the space she was painting for in mind. ​“I was focused on larger paintings,” she said. ​“I also made a lot of canvases from scratch.” The paintings remained abstract, but Larson felt a keen sense of purpose. ​“A lot of what I was trying to do was to be as emotional as I usually am, but to incorporate nature…. I wanted to be clear about what I’m about.” Painting directly on wood instead of on blank canvas was a part of that. The grain of the wood, she said, ​“starts the painting off by itself.”

The paintings Larson did for the Shubert installation were a continuation of her artistic development. ​“I want to keep the same confessional abstract path I’ve been on,” she said. ​“I treat the abstract as another language…. the big thing is keeping a singular idea in mind, and trying to tell it through painting.”

Larson had another goal in mind as well: ​“I wanted the space to look good,” she said.

Larson’s ideas, channelled through Art25, are born of her experience living all over town. ​“Growing up in all these places you start to realize there’s a different life in each. All of them want art and not all of them get it. I am 100 percent sure that if they knew they could access art, a lot of kids would come out of the woodwork.”

“I want to prove that we’re the cultural capital. We can do more,” Larson continued. The city could create programs to subsidize more artists and their work. But ​“the biggest thing is access to spaces,” places where the public can see what artists are doing — not just in galleries, but in walls all over town, anywhere where people have a chance to get a glimpse.

“It’s either you know people or you get discovered in a coffee shop,” Larson said. In her vision of how the arts scene could be, there is public art in every theater — ​“Long Wharf Theatre, hint, hint, you have amazing walls,” she said — and in businesses across the city. ​“Imagine if College Street Music Hall did it,” she said. ​“There are so many places that would be a perfect setting for art.”

She described a homeless man who lives on the Green who is an ​“excellent artist,” she said. ​“He’s very devout in what he’s doing. I would love a gallery for him. I’m tired of seeing his work as decoration. I want it to be uplifted.”

“I’m saying these things because I love this city,” she added.