How Cake and Hotdogs Inspired a Platform

Are you familiar with the American artist Wayne Thiebaud? He is best known for his delicious and colorful paintings of cakes, pastries, candies, and hotdogs. Thiebaud was also a remarkable landscape painter with a distinct postmodern style. He was once quoted saying he would never use a color in his paintings that he didn’t like — which probably explains why the palettes you see in his work are so bright, vivid, and beautiful.

Wayne Thiebaud was born on November 15, 1920, and painted all the way until he was 101 years old. His mind-bending city and mountain studies, along with his complex color explorations of food and everyday objects, were — in his words — about repetition, geometry, and light. His thick, layered application of paint made his work almost sculptural, and if you look closely, his whites are rarely true white. Most of the time, they’re soft shades of pink, lavender, yellow, or blue. Before becoming a full-time fine artist, Thiebaud even spent time working as an animator for The Walt Disney Company.

When it comes to identifying your favorite artist, so much comes into play. There are countless artists to choose from, spanning modern times to the distant past. So what is it about your favorite artist that makes them stand out to you? For the founder of Museo, it’s the way Thiebaud chooses color and applies paint to make sweet treats look almost edible as they hang on a museum wall.

When Museo’s founder, Emily, was on a trip to San Francisco in 2016, she was on a mission to find art by her favorite artist, Mr. Thiebaud. On the day she set aside for this adventure, she did a quick Google search to see what she could find. She quickly realized that locating his artwork was not going to be simple. After digging through search results and being directed to various museum pages, it started to feel like work just to track down what she was looking for. In that moment, it dawned on her: there should be an easier way to do this. There should be an app for this.

Emily was amazed to discover there were no apps dedicated to locating art. The closest thing she found was Google Arts & Culture, but it wasn’t quite the tool she needed. Within a few years, she developed a plan, designed the software, and in October 2020 launched Museo: The Art Tourism App.

With Museo, users can easily search a global map to find art in the world around them. The app also includes a feature that lets you follow your favorite artists and museums, making it even easier to stay connected. There’s an events page to help prevent you from missing special exhibitions — and the best part? New art is added to the map every day. That’s right! Museo is a global movement powered by art lovers, curators, museums, and the Museo team.

So what are you waiting for? The Museo platform is available on iOS, Android, and the web.

Happy searching,
The Museo Docent