now that Lance is a successful fashion and sneaker designer we wanted to flesh out his creative life as a designer at this workstation. For the sneaker drawings we rented the original sketches of one of our beloved set dressers Aaron.
Like many fans of “The Other Two” on HBOMax my favorite character is the lovable Lance Arroyo played by Josh Segarra, so when working on decorating his apartment set I wanted to give it a lot of intention and care.
We first see Lance’s apartment in Season 1, but since his character has really flourished and experienced a professional glow up (from Foot Locker salesperson to Fashion Designer showing a full collection) we wanted his apartment to reflect that evolution too while maintaining the fun playful spirit of Lance’s character.
Lance and Chase at Lance’s fashion show
Chase backstage with a rack of the colorful clothes from Lance’s collection behind him.
Lance’s fashion line is full of bright yellows and oranges, so we wanted that to be reflected in the apartment accents and artwork too. You see Lance’s apartment before you see any pieces from his fashion line or the fashion show, so it is color preview of sorts.
artwork on the shelf is an original from Elisa Lopez
Since Josh the actor is of Puerto Rican descent, I decided Lance Arroyo was too and we set about looking for young Puerto Rican, Latinx, and artists of color to find artwork for Lance’s apartment that we could rent for the set.
print outs of the artwork we sought out for Lance’s apartment from artists Elisa Lopez, Dana Robinson, Ronald Perez, Chanel Chiffon Thomas, and Alicia Degener hanging on the wall in my office so we could see how it might all work together.
To reflect the streetwear sensibility of Lance’s fashion collection I thought he would probably be inspired by artists with similar vibes in their artwork.
In this shot you can see Ronald Perez’s and Chanel Chiffon Thomas’s artwork.
We were really pumped to find artwork from young art Puerto Rican, Latinx, and Black artists that we were able to feature in the set and best of all which appeared on screen!
A great shot of Chanel Chiffon Thomas’ piece here.
Not always a guarantee, because we decorate a set but have no control over how the scenes are shot and ultimately how the episode is edited.
Ronald Perez’s much loved “Cafe Bustelo” piece gets a lot of screentime in this episode.
Working with independent artists to rent and showcase their artwork in sets is always a ton more work than renting from a prop house or printing from a stock photo service but the results are always ten times more gratifying and uniquely tailored to a character.
And in the case of Lance, totally worth it.
You really get to see Dana Robinson’s wonderful painting a lot when we are in those hilarious bathroom scenes.
one last piece of original artwork we rented directly from an artist (in this case Becca Lowry) for Lance’s backstage room at his Fashion Show in the finale of Season Two (Episode 10.)
Becca Lowry (https://beccalowry.com/home.html) sculpture hanging on the wall.
If you are an artist reading this who is interested in working together to let me rent your artwork for a future set please email me and I would love to find a way to work together!