Dollar General Art

Dollar General Corporation has a beautiful corporate headquarters in Goodlettsville, TN. In the fall of 2009, they called to ask us to create 4 pieces of art that would commemorate a very special event. But it was secret—(they were bound by federal law to keep a lid on the details.) It was pretty obvious that there was a public stock offering in the works, but nobody was allowed to talk about it. So they said, “We have a long tradition of collecting original art for our corporate offices and spaces. Do something that celebrates our history and our brand, and make the art contemporary enough that it will suggest where we are headed into the future.” They wanted real paintings—4 Joel Anderson originals.

So Joel took a tour of the corporate facilities and the extensive fine art collection that the Turner family had amassed over the years. It was rather intimidating to know that he had to create 3 giant paintings to be the focal point of the lobby, and do a fourth piece that would grace the executive level board room. Oh yes, one of the pieces had to be turned into a signed and numbered limited edition print for 60 VIPs. A version of the art needed to be blown up big enough to hang as a 2-story tall banner out front of the building, too.



So Joel set to work on the art. He started with sketches, then vector designs in Adobe Illustrator. Then he bought 6 foot tall canvases, projected his art onto them and started painting. To add a dimensional effect, he cut up a mosaic of painted paper strips and affixed them to the canvas. The resulting works are the focal point of the grand lobby. Limited edition prints were given to corporate executives, Wall Street investors, clients and traders in recognition of their work to make the public stock offering a success.

This project was an interesting fusion of fine art and graphic design—of corporate America supporting the arts while using art to promote a corporate vision.