Austin-based artists Jeremy Earhart and Josef Kristofoletti of the newly-formed wall finishing concept company Pigment aren't just decorative painters in the traditional sense. They’re master manipulators of wall aesthetics and they’re determined to prove to Austinites that walls are meant to be bold, personal, graphic and dynamic.

Both from the East Coast, Jeremy and Josef met a few years ago in Austin when they were working for a large, traditional decorative painting company. After discovering their mutual philosophies about wall designs, they formed Pigment a few months ago; Jeremy and Josef create wall textures, glazes, murals, gilding, custom stenciling and basically any sort of wall enhancement in residential and commercial spaces.

"We like taking those really sort of stuffy, traditional materials and doing something completely different with them. Giving it a new twist. Adding bold colors or graphic patterns," says Jeremy.

Along with years of working on a variety of decorative painting projects around the country, they both come with their own impressive art practices. Jeremy creates amazing Plexiglas sculptures and pieces for the wall that combine hip colors, detailed shapes and digital-inspired patterns. Josef is an artist whose incredible murals are colorful and modern; one piece even depicts the Atlas particle detector of CERN's Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland on an exterior wall there.

For those not familiar with what decorative painting has been traditionally known as, let us paint you a picture. Imagine a warm, shiny ceiling completely gold-leafed. Or the metallic glints of gilded chair and door molding. Delicately painted floor designs or a wall mural depicting an idyllic countryside scene. The two J’s have certainly done their fair share of traditional projects (as can be seen on their online portfolio), but with Pigment they plan to inject a fresh new style in this old art form and do it in a young, modern way.

"The things that most excite me are like taking a quilt pattern and making it in a completely different palette, making it three-dimensional on a wall or making it modern…putting my own hand in it, in a sense. I think that’s sort of what we want to do [with Pigment]," says Jeremy.

How? By using old decorative painting techniques and tools in new ways. Take a project they're working on now: a residential home has a game room filled with pinball machines, arcade games and slot machines. Combining Josef’s meticulous mural skills along with Jeremy’s sweet Plexiglas designs and some traditional wall techniques, they'll transform the walls and ceiling into the inner workings of a pin ball machine. Yet another project will reimagine Rorschach’s famous ink blots for a wall, only really big and in bold, modern colors.

"One of the things we love about Austin is that the aesthetic here is a lot more modern and closer to what we personally like. We are working on a line of more contemporary looks that use traditional techniques but feel very modern and are unlike anything we've ever seen before. Austin has become one of the most innovative cities in the country and as it grows it continues to create its own aesthetic. We'd like to be a part of that. People here are very open to trying different things; it's almost expected that if it's in Austin, it has to be different," says Josef.

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To find out more information about Pigment, see some of their previous projects and learn how they can help revamp and jazz up some of your walls, visit their website or their Facebook page.