Like many artists, John Otte has painted houses for extra cash. But never before has he been asked to paint the outside of the house as if it were one of his abstract canvases.

Otte is putting the finishing touches on the exterior of a new, contemporary home in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward. In recent weeks, he has splashed unmixed black latex house paint against the side of the house, slathered iridescent acrylic paint, splattered brown and black paint and added texture by pressing bubble wrap into the thick layers. He created streaks that look like rain.

Joey Ivansco / AJC (ENLARGE)

The house on Corley Street has a unique exterior paint job by artist John Otte that includes splatters, runs and drips.

Joey Ivansco / AJC (ENLARGE)

The homeowners wanted the house to be a 'visual sponge' of black paint.

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"I've even painted shadows onto the house," said Otte, an Atlanta-based artist who also is well-known as a private DJ.

From a distance, the effect is subtle. Architects David Yocum and Brian Bell are admirers of Otte's artwork and asked him to create a rich, dark patina on all of the home's exterior cement-board panels.

"We were interested in the house absorbing the colors and the dirt and grime around it — a visual sponge, if you will," Yocum said. "From the beginning, the clients were interested in the idea of a darker house."

"We think of it as a 'blackwash' instead of a whitewash," said Bell.

The 2,300-square-foot home is on a tiny lot on Corley Street, around the corner from the Highland Bakery on North Highland Avenue, in one of Atlanta's oldest neighborhoods. The area was ravaged by the Great Fire of 1917 — another source of inspiration for the black exterior, according to Yocum.

Calvin Florian, who is building the house with girlfriend Kelly Hart, said the two love contemporary architecture, "but we didn't want one of those modern, striking-white houses. We wanted it to blend in with the environment a little bit more."

Florian, a producer at Cartoon Network, also took a cue from work when thinking about the exterior finish. "If you look at the backgrounds in cartoons, they usually have a nice texture. You might see brush strokes," he said.

The couple, who plans to move in about three weeks, also likes the idea that the home's large windows will glow at night against the home's receding black exterior.

Florian has lived in the neighborhood for nine years and has heard mixed reactions from neighbors. "There are a few people in the neighborhood who don't like it," he said. But he noted that theirs is by no means the only contemporary home in the area, which lies between the MLK Historic District and a swath of intense development in Inman Park.

One of the few comments made by passers-by was a spray-painted message on a Dumpster: "This house rocks." Florian thinks that may have been one of his friends.

Florian, who played and toured the country with Dropsonic and other rock bands before taking the Cartoon Network job, said he knew of Otte both as an artist and a DJ. Hart, a former bartender, met the artist while they were both working at The Point, a now-defunct bar in Little Five Points.

Otte's original work on the house was a bit bolder — with more dramatic colors and textures — than the owners felt comfortable with, Florian said. One day, Otte really went too far and spray painted "Finger Lickin' Good" on the side of the house. Not wanting their home to become a target for graffiti artists, the couple asked him to paint over it.

"We were a little more conservative than he would probably like," Florian said. "We asked that it be a little more subdued."

MORE ON JOHN OTTE'S WORK

• For more information on the house, visit the architects' Web site, www.bldgs.org, and the owner's blog, calvinflorian.wordpress.com.

• Otte's artwork can be viewed in "Seen/Unseen" at Whitespace Gallery in Inman Park, which runs through Saturday, and in the Dalton Gallery at Agnes Scott College in Decatur. The latter, "The Possibility of Framing Infinity," runs through March 16.