Giving shape to living
environments through
innovative use of color
and texture.

"Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than a magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration."

–Charles Dickens (English novelist,1812-1870).

. . . . .

About Coburn & Schulz

Our design philosophy is to enrich and enhance the aesthetic experience to the living environments of the home, rendering spaces to their ultimate purpose, combining client needs with our own vision and expertise in the innovative use of texture and composition.

Drawing upon our Fine Arts training and work as studio artists, significant residential construction experience and interior design work, we bring distinctive competencies and a unique orientation to our interior design engagements. Through our work, we have developed a refined sense for the aesthetics of color and texture in giving shape to spaces in which to live. We concentrate principally on the interp lay of textures and colors for wall surfaces and ceilings, the selection of fabrics and design for window treatments, and in the design and selection of carpets, runners and rugs.

Trisha Coburn

Trisha Coburn has been a studio artist for a number of years both in New York City and in Boston. She received her Fine Arts training from the Art Student’s League, the National Academy of Fine Arts and from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University where she earned a BFA and a Certificate of Advanced Studies. Trisha has focused principally on painting large scale oil-based abstractions, incorporating encaustics, plaster and raw pigments. Her interior design work has been informed by her studio art, as she utilizes various decorative art techniques for wall surfaces and ceilings. Having provided comprehensive design services for clients in New York City, she has joined with Tom Schulz to concentrate on the Coburn & Schulz design activities, expanding upon innovative uses of textures and composition.

(Email Trisha Coburn) (917) 751-4257

• Walking into one’s home should be an uplifting experience, being held in the beauty of color and texture. The personal space of the home is constantly growing and changing as are the people living within it.

• My work is about color, texture, and the language between the two. I am very emotional about color and I cannot imagine living without it. Color has a language and that language guides me. It is through this language that I hear the best, though on a level that’s unspoken. Hearing beyond the hearing – that is what is feels like.

• Walls become alive through the use of plaster and wax, one can feel the embrace of the richness of the space.

• For me, the power of making art is a physical process of working with different materials. The transforming nature of encaustic, for example, is very exciting because you can maintain the beautiful transparency of the medium or increase its opacity by mixing it with raw pigment.

• Tom and I create rooms that make one feel that he or she is living in a work of art. It is an exciting process, drawing upon our training as studio artists and our sensibilities to color and texture to create living canvases.

Tom Schulz

Tom Schulz holds an MFA from Tufts University and The School of the Museum of Fine Art. As a practicing artist, he pursues work in a multitude of mediums, primarily working with paint, acid, and concrete. He has taught painting and critical theory at the Museum School, Clark University and the Harvard University Summer Extension Program. Tom is the owner and director of the Empathinc. Gallery in Charlotte, NC, where he also maintains his studio. He has a thirty-five year background in design/build contracting in Asheville, NC and Boston, MA. Tom has recently entered into partnership with artist Trisha Coburn to explore the possibilities of melding and implementing philosophies of art and home.

(Email Tom Schulz) (646) 797-9790

• We feel we must listen to the specific needs of the clients: their lifestyle and means of entertaining. But we must also listen to the needs of the space that we are dealing with. It is easy to breeze into a home and flip out the same old swatches, it is another thing altogether to leave an interview and search for the precise and proper answers.

• I often find myself wandering about the builder’s supply inventing ways to use material in inappropriate ways. This allows me to ‘catalogue’ potential for future usage.

• I believe that there are only two key issues in art, living, design and human interaction: composition and perspective. I see perspective as the art of stance - in the home environment it is a way of being, a comfort that transcends words. Composition I see as the art of arranging. This can format as walls, schedules, efficiency, budget - extending way beyond how the furniture is placed.

• I love working with Trisha. Behind her incandescent personality burns an equal light of spontaneity and insight. I find her color sensibility absolutely delightful, her inventiveness with furnishings inspirational. Somehow we have stumbled into a rapport in communication that brings something out greater than our individual efforts. This is rare.

• To have your heart flutter as you unlock the front door and enter your home -- now that is a worthy goal of any design.

• The considerations of home space are the same as sculpture. I am convinced that there is no difference. Positive space. Negative space. The same.