Woman at Work - Beth Jones
by Dawn Blunk

EMOTION, TRANSFERRED To an artistic medium through a brush, chisel or bare hands, can convey a million ideas. Art consultant Beth Jones is tasked daily with filling as many buildings and landscapes with fine art as she can.

After 12 years in the art consulting business, Jones has added the finishing touches in the form of framed art, sculpture and murals to public spaces and offices throughout California and in several other states. Her biggest local project can be viewed at the Kaiser Permanente Regional Call Center on Arden Way. One of the pieces she commissioned for the project is a steel environmental wall piece by Michaele LeCompte that expands several hundred feet around the office.

In Albuquerque, N. M., the employees of a Sprint office Jones fitted with commissioned art pieces asked her if the company was going to take down the art after the reception. Jones says they just couldn't believe the art was for them.

"For the employee, the person who is working there day in and day out, the environment is very important. The detail of the art gives the employee a spot of relief, reminds them of something outside of work," says Jones.
Jones and her husband, artist S. R. Jones, believe strongly in the power of art to transform not only physical spaces but also people's viewpoints, including those within their own family. "When they were little, they used to ask us why we had pictures of naked people in our house when no one else did, " says Jones of her two children, now ages 13 and 16. "I think it has raised their awareness, their sensibilities. They are very complex when it comes to visual images. "