The Story Behind Walls + Wax

A collector’s eye, a producer’s ear and two passions worth sharing.

I grew up in Saddle River, New Jersey, surrounded by apple orchards and farmland about 30 minutes northwest of New York City.

When it was time for college, I moved to Manhattan to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology. That is where this story really begins— not because growing up in the country somehow destined me to discover urban culture, but because living in New York placed it directly in front of me.

I discovered urban art on my own, walking through the city and paying attention to its walls, streets, storefronts and neighborhoods. No professor, curator or collector pointed it out to me. I simply noticed the work and kept looking.

Advertising eventually became my profession. Today, I am co-founder and CEO of Left Off Madison. But the interests behind Walls + Wax began long before the agency. This is where my professional experiences and personal passions finally meet.

The Art Was Already in the Family

Creativity runs through my family, although each of us expresses it differently.

My sisters, Heather and Sandi, are artists in their own areas of interest. One of my nieces is a clothing designer for Gap. Another is an art director at a California advertising agency.

Then there is The Douglas House. Our family home is an active film location that regularly becomes the setting for commercials, television shows, music videos and comedy sketches.

In one form or another, art, design, music, storytelling and production have always been in the house. Walls + Wax simply gives some of those interests a new home.

From Collector to Collaborator

I began collecting urban art in the 1990s, long before street art regularly appeared in major galleries, auction houses and corporate collections.

I was drawn to artists who developed unmistakable visual languages in public work that could stop you, challenge you or make you reconsider an environment you thought you already understood.

That interest eventually crossed into my professional life. During my advertising career, I had opportunities to work and collaborate with Shepard Fairey and Dave Kinsey at BLK/MRKT, bringing their perspective into conversations with major marketers.

In 2002, The Washington Post documented one of those moments, reporting that I brought Fairey and his BLK/MRKT partner to New York to challenge conventional thinking about how brands connected with younger consumers. Inc. later explored the broader intersection of Fairey, Kinsey, street art and commerce, including work created for brands such as my client Keurig Dr Pepper.

Those experiences reinforced something I had already come to believe: urban art is not merely decoration. It is communication. It carries ideas, identity, provocation and cultural meaning often long before the mainstream recognizes its influence.

That is the perspective behind Walls.

The Music went Far Beyond the Studio

Music has never been background noise to me. The soundtrack began before I had any say in it.

From my parents’ stereo came Frank Sinatra, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and other giants of their generation. From my sisters’ bedrooms came Carole King, the Beatles, the Eagles and Crosby, Stills & Nash.

As a teenager and young adult, I began building a soundtrack of my own immersing myself in rock through Rush and the Police; heavy metal through Judas Priest and Def Leppard; electronic music through Depeche Mode and New Order; and hip-hop through Nas, Gang Starr and Jay-Z.

It was less a progression from one genre to another than an appetite for discovery. I learned to follow music wherever it led me.

Somewhere along the way — almost accidentally — I became the executive producer of a platinum-selling album collection. That experience taught me to listen beyond the obvious: to hear the production, sequencing, performances and creative decisions that turn a collection of songs into a complete artistic statement.

My connection to music also became an important part of my advertising career.

While at Young & Rubicam, I helped conceive and lead a multifaceted partnership between Dr Pepper/Seven Up— now part of Keurig Dr Pepper— and Clive Davis’s J Records. Working with J Records executives Tom Corson and Donna Clower, we developed brand integrations involving artists including O-Town, Erick Sermon (EPMD), Deborah Cox, and Mario.

Through that relationship, I also helped secure a live Wyclef Jean performance aboard a double-decker bus in Times Square for LG Electronics. Billboard reported on the free New York performances.

I later worked closely with Maurice Bernstein and the team at Giant Step to help create and curate two separate concert series as integral parts of larger advertising campaigns.

For Dr Pepper/Seven Up, we produced approximately ten shows across New York, Los Angeles and Miami. The series featured Felix da Housecat, Jurassic 5 and Talib Kweli, along with showcases devoted to influential labels including Stones Throw Records (JDilla, Madlib, others) and Warp Records (Andrew Weatherall, Plaid, Prefuse 73).

For LG Electronics, the program expanded to dozens of performances spanning hip-hop, soul, jazz, electronic music and global sounds. Participating artists included The Pharcyde, J Dilla, Amp Fiddler, Van Hunt, Raphael Saadiq, Jazzanova, Los Amigos Invisibles and Gilles Peterson.

These were not conventional sponsorships with a logo placed beside a stage. The music was embedded within larger campaign ideas connecting brands with artists, audiences and emerging culture in ways that felt credible to each.

Those experiences sharpened my ear, expanded my musical curiosity and reinforced the importance of experiencing an artist’s complete body of work.

Because: Singles get attention. Albums reveal the artist.

Why Reggae?

My love of reggae eventually became Reggae Friday, an evolving playlist of the artists, albums and essential tracks I continually return to and enthusiastically share.

What draws me to reggae is not one particular sound. It is the music’s remarkable range: its bass and rhythm, spirituality and resistance, intimacy and celebration, tradition and constant reinvention.

My production experience gives me a perspective from which to discuss how an album is constructed, sequenced and brought to life. It does not make me an authority on Jamaican or Caribbean culture.

I am not here to explain Caribbean music to the people who created it. I am here as a longtime listener and producer, sharing what I hear, what I admire and what I am still learning.

That is the spirit behind Wax.

Why Walls + Wax?

Pop culture rarely begins in the mainstream.

Its imagery, sounds, language and attitude are often shaped by artists and musical traditions working beyond the brightest spotlight. Mainstream culture borrows from them constantly —sometimes without directing enough attention, appreciation or opportunity back to the source.

Walls + Wax is my small attempt to help reverse that flow.

This is a personal celebration of the urban art and reggae music that bring me joy. By sharing the artists, albums and stories behind that work, I hope to bring more eyes and ears to their creators, expand their audiences and help that joy travel further.

Because at its heart, Walls + Wax is not simply about what I collect or play.

It is about what I believe more people deserve to see and hear.

Look closer. Listen deeper.