Coffee - Consumed by the Eye Alone

I've looked for more of Chanisa's work online but haven't found her personal portfolio site. There are a few Blogs and sites with her mentioned with images on though.

Her sepia style is as wistful as it is beautiful. From what I gather from the article, her technique is not so different from mine as far as the creation of the coffee paint.

Chanisa uses painting with coffee as a form of meditation. "It is my most powerful meditation method. It brings the faith of my past, the love of my present and the hope of my future to the ‘now' moment," she says. A very wise and powerful sentiment. Beautiful.

It's the age old question. Why coffee? well I hear it quite a bit! My reason is a quest for cultural understanding. Mine and others in the world. I'm painting different cultures through one theme. Coffee. When I'm done there will be a collective work showing how one thing effects and is embraced by different cultures. It will be a very diverse visual description of the world.

I think Chanisa's reason is as wistfuly beautiful as her work. Quoting from the article by Jim Baker.

Arthachinda, a native of Thailand who has lived in Lawrence on and off since 1980, says the idea to use espresso to paint came to her in a dream.

"A wise woman told me that I am a painter. I was aware I was dreaming, and so I asked her what kind of medium the painter was using in the dream," she says.

The next morning, Arthachinda made an intuitive leap that coffee was the answer to her question.

"I just poured my espresso on my canvas" and started painting, she says."

With no formal art training she has produced over 29 coffee paintings. She has earned a doctorate in educational technology from Kansas University, she's a retired architect and has published seven books in Thailand about her childhood emotional growth and parenting.

There is more information on this amazing woman online and in the aforementioned article. If you are interested in reading more about Chanisa Arthachinda you can Google her or visit some of these links.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/may/07/grinding_it_out

http://www.debraerikson.com/chanissa/introchanissa.html

http://coffeeworks.blogs.com/coffee_and_tea/2005/05/espresso_art_pa.html