Flavor Paper has teamed up with French artist Ara Starck to introduce Vortex: an immersive room scale painting with tremendous depth. Created layer by layer from original artwork, Vortex is one of Flavor Paper’s most complex wallpaper designs to date, both in process and effect. Taking inspiration from the dynamic, fluid nature of a vortex: a swirling mass that pulls things to its center, the idea began when Ara Starck and Jon Sherman, founder and creative director of Flavor Paper, worked simultaneously on atmospheric elements of the SLS Hotel Miami in 2012. The earliest elements of Vortex stemmed from this project and upon its completion, both agreed the styles and techniques could be merged to create a sum greater than its parts. After nearly a year of working from concept to creation the massive Vortex mural has emerged as the harmonious result.

Working much like a Vortex itself, Starck and Flavor Paper combined multiple techniques for a unique process. Created by layering, two main techniques were used: charcoal and oil painting. Both were utilized for their most essential values – charcoal for its rough, grounded strength and oil painting for its ethereal, sensual intimacy. The two separate art pieces were digitally merged into one swirling, poetic design. With the charcoal rendered as a half tone, it holds its form but becomes entwined with the oil painting. It is impossible to spot where one piece begins and another ends. Printed at room scale, the brush strokes (and even a few loose bristles) make the viewer feel as if they too exist within a painting.

Vortex Cutsheet