Why Aren't We Swimming in Coffee?

Brian Vegter, the dog artist from Baker City, Oregon and he loves everything dog. If your a friend you would call him Bri. I came across Bri's “A Dog Painting A Day” Blog and subsequently his Website Dogs by Bri. His personal site is very cute and well designed for his art. The painting to the left, "Why Aren't We Swimming in Coffee?", was the first to catch my attention. Who wouldn't want to be swimming in coffee? It turned out that he had a previous painting called "Swimming in Coffee" displayed below!

Swimming In Coffee

Disgruntled with his work as a television cameraman in New York City Bri got his first big brake from a friend. How could you be unhappy with being a TV cameraman in NY city you ask? Well, let me ask you this: are you happy with the job you currently have? You went to school for it. Not quite getting the work you thought you would? Same goes for Bri. He was not getting the film work he was hoeing for. As for his friend? We could all use a friend or two like this. Bri started hanging small paintings in his friends upscale dog boutique, Doggy Style in NYC, Bri's work took off and his career changed. What lead him to paint dogs with coffee is a fun story he has posted on his Website.

". . . Fairmont used to stare longingly at the cappuccinos that I made every morning, so that's what the painting was about. I even used real espresso to tint the canvas. For months the picture had the beautiful smell of coffee drifting from it."

Who hasn't had that special pet who inspired greatness . . . even if was just in catching Frisbees! I miss Nikita! My German Shepard. There are no paintings of her let alone coffee paintings . . . hmmm . . . maybe some day.

Fox and the Coffee Hound

Bri considers his images to be environmental portraits attempting to capture the spirit of the dogs.

"What are they passionate about? Are they ball crazy? A little thief? Or addicted to coffee."

I found Bri's work to be fun and whimsical. Very much an enjoyable addition to the Coffee Talk blog. Thank you Bri!

For more information on Bri and his work you can find him on Animal Planet's "K9 Karma," The Bark Magazine and featured in Oregon Home: the Art of the Canine.



Contact Bri by e-mail: dogbri@q.com

Links about bri and his work:

Dogs by Bri: http://www.dogsbybri.com
A Dog Painting A Day Blog:
http://dogsbybri.blogspot.com/
Oregon Home: the Art of the Canine feature article: http://www.oregonhomemagazine.com/articles/portfolio/the-art-of-the-canine.html

Dusty Dog Studio (2339 Auburn Ave.) in Baker City, Ore.

16 pictures created by Instant Coffee

I found this article about Vancouver's Main Street route are being invited to choose a piece of artwork that will be painted on the outside of a No. 3 bus plying the route later this year. Unfortunetly it had no pictures of the Instant Coffee pictures! Maybe if they win they'll be published!

Buses to become mobile works of art for Main Street's 'art corridor'

By: Gerry Bellett, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, January 12, 2009

Members of the public riding buses on Vancouver's Main Street route are being invited to choose a piece of artwork that will be painted on the outside of a No. 3 bus plying the route later this year.

A series of 16 pictures created by Instant Coffee, an artist collective that works out of Vancouver and Toronto, have been installed in the advertising panels of a trolley bus and people are being encouraged to text message their choice to 604-779-0008.

The contest is part of a public art and neighbourhood street improvement program for Main Street, sponsored by TransLink and the city of Vancouver, that has been running for a number of years.

As part of the program another No. 3 bus, decorated with Afghan blanket panels, has been on the route since mid-December, said TransLink's Judy Rudin.

"The idea is to create an art corridor along Main Street and one part of this is using a bus as a piece of artwork," she said.

The winning artwork will be announced at the opening launch of 88 BLOCKS -- Art on Main, on Jan. 17. Rudin said the program will feature five planned artwork exhibitions on three trolleys serving Main Street, as well as artwork being installed at various points along the route.

© The Vancouver Sun 2009

Egyptian Coffee painting

This is a little piece I found at MyCraftWorks. Primarily Indian themed art from the looks of it though there was no profile about the artist.

"In this Blog, you can find the works done by myself and some contributions from my family. This Blog is created to share my creativity with you all. Also, there are many creative people who inspired me to do all these works."

"This is a Coffee painting, popularly known as Egyptian Coffee painting.
The board used is MDF and the picture is pasted on the same and outlined with gold 3d outliner. The paint is a mixture of instant coffee powder, fevicryl glue n gloss and water."

artdc.org - coffee, art, coffee anyone?

Washington, DC Metro Arts forum is hosting a fun little contest or mini-event. The information and link to there forum is listed below. Given my chosen medium and subject matter this fits right up my ally!

I've reposted the information below. You can find the original article posted here . . .

We’re curious. Have you ever made art out of coffee based materials. If you haven’t, we’d like to see what you can create. Call it a challenge. No prize or real reason, other than the fact that we think creativity is cool. If you think creativity is interesting, make some art out of coffee based materials, beans, grinds, coffee machines, or something, and reply with images here:

http://artdc.org/forum/index.php?topic=10971.0

We’re not looking for images of people drinking coffee, but actual art made with coffee.

Further, we’d like to hear more about art made from recycled materials, if you work in recycled materials, please do post about it on the forum, or send me a message about it at jesse@artdc.org

Cheers,

–Jesse
jesse@artdc.org

I did go to the ARTDC link above and registered with the forum in hopes of uploading some of my coffee painting images. Alas I'm still waiting for my e-mail confirmation allowing me access to the forum. Poot! I hate waiting! I'll keep you posted on how long it takes and when my work will be up.

Some of the images on the forum didn't fit the ask for parameters but fell into the coffee motif. A couple images did what they asked . . .



Comment by the artist:

"One of my thousands of unfinished/"gestating" pieces, made with a lot of coffee and coffe grounds as well as tereyaki sauce, whiskey, pastel, watercolor, and arcylic on a lithograph on rice paper."

Comment by the artist:

"not sure if this will count - but i wasn't happy with the stark whiteness of the cheesecloth i used for this piece. so i took my used coffee grounds, some tea, and worcestershire sauce, to give it a bit of color (i wanted to use natural!)"

Once I get the e-mail confirmation I'll upload some images like these!

The Morning News

Open Mic Night (at the Cafe)

. . . at the Cafe

Late Night Drip

Child of Seattle

For more images like these and information on Ezju the Seattle based coffee artist please visit his Website at www.nosuchanimal.net

Megan Balli: I've heard about painting with coffee

Megan Balli is a Utah based artist who works with traditional media as well as photography, illustration, design, and now experimenting with coffee as a medium! You can view Megan's work on her Blog Megan's Illustrations or contact her at meganbonde@gmail.com.

Megan's Illustrations hosts life drawings, paintings and illustrations in addition to links for her other work in photography and design. Her paintings and illustrations range from cute little quirky birds sitting in a landscape to serious portraits and landscapes.

"I did this in Denver with my in-laws. I've heard about painting with coffee, but had never done it till now. I think it's a lot of fun actually, and would love to do a few more to experiment with. It's all pure ground coffee with a little bit of Payne's Grey watercolor for added contrast."

I hope she keeps experimenting!

Megan's Photography
Megan's Designs
Megan's Life Drawings
Last but not least Russell and Megan Balli . . . all you could want to know . . .

For more information on coffee art and the artists who use coffee as an artistic medium please feel free to peruse this Coffee Talk blog or visit the Seattle based coffee artist Ezju at his studio Website www.nosuchanimal.net

No Such Animal Studios has found a new home!

No Such Animal Studios has found a new home! Over the past few years Ezju has been busy working at Boeing and raising a family. It’s time to get back to art!

Early February Ezju will be moving his art studio into a 600+ sq/ft space at 14802 Bothell Way NE Seattle, WA 98155. The new studio doesn’t have a number assigned to it yet but that is in the works. This new studio space will also serve as the new location of Ph’Kaki Media and Design, Ezju’s design company. The best part is the new space even has a window!

It’s been over 3 years since the last painting in Ezju’s Coffee Culture multi-series. With the accusation of a new home for the studio more work to this series will be produced in 2009 covering the lifestyle of Coffee Culture in Seattle to emulations of barista latte art. Also in the concept stage is a new series, Coffee Noir.

All of Ezju’s Coffee Culture multi-series are painted using coffee as not just a subject matter but also as an artistic medium. For more information on Ezju and his work please visit www.nosuchanimal.net.

More information to come as the move in date gets closer!

Filipina Coffee Painter - Sunshine Plata

I came upon this article, Filipina Coffee Painter, and thought I'd share. It was published on January 2, 2009 by bong

"She is talented. Smart. Innovative. She loves coffee – but she doesn’t drink it, she paints with it. Sunshine Plata professes that she doesn’t drink coffee because she loves to sleep - wherein she gets her inspiration from. I’m just curious, before she bagged the Nescafe endorsement of her recent exhibit, what was she using? Blend 45 or kapeng Batangas? I guess Starbucks is out of the question because she doesn’t use brewed coffee, plus it is very expensive and runs counter to the very reason she switched her medium from oil to coffee. Amazing Filipino talent!"

While I've included the body text here in my article, there is a short video clip of this young lady and her art work as well as reasons and statements about why she uses coffee as an artistic medium!

After doing some research on this 28 year old artist I discovered in her inspiration an answer to a question that has nagged myself and patrons for years now. Is coffee permanent? I found the answer on MisterYosa.com in an article about Sunshine and her art.

"It all started one fateful day when she saw a 19th century artifact with a signature done in coffee by the artist. And to think that it survived all these years was an exceptional thing on its own. Then, an idea. It was perfect, and it was ingenious."

Also posted in the article on misteryosa.com was "When asked what her message is to inspiring artists, Sunshine has this to say (or write, ’cause, well, we’ve never met personally…yet :)):"

"Message to artists/non artists, to pinoys, to everyone: If your intentions are good and noble, u should never let whatever circumstance u have in life to hinder u from expressing ur creative self in whatever form. If people without limbs can use their feet or their mouth to paint how much more ourselves who are not put in that kid of a dilemma? all we need is that passion, perseverance and that spark of creativity flowing in our veins in order to be another creator of beauty and pure honesty.

There's a book entitled “dream and ur dreams will fall short” and i can see the truth in that now! i dreamed but not this gigantic and all the things i am getting now are bizarrely beyond my wildest dreams! i encourage everyone to pray, only God can help u attain the utterly unexpected! filipinos are known to be pious and i say ur not born a filipino for nothing, there is absolutely a purpose! remember bamboo’s song ‘pinoy ako”: “sabi nila may anting anting ako pero di nila alam na diyos ang dahilan ko”

Maraming pang magagaling na pinoy talents na undiscovered at naniniwala akong kayang-kaya pa nila higitan yung mga natamo ko! kailangan lang sila mabigyan ng pagkakataon, suportahan at paniwalaan! Hiling ko po sa mga kapwa ko pinoy: ‘ipagdasal niyo po ako kailangan ko yun araw-araw, salamat po”

YUN TINAMO KO PONG KARANGALAN AY HANDOG KO SA BAWAT ISANG MAMAMAYANG PILIPINO, MATAPANG KA, KAYA MO….PARA SAYO TOH!"

Sunshine's coffee paintings have even made an appearance on the Martha Stuart Show. Now I'm just getting jealous!

Sunshine Plata, also known as Kapeng Mahiwaga ng Isang Diwata, holds a psychology degree and teach kindergarten in Pasig City, Manila, the Philippines. She keeps a Website/Blog at http://d1wata.wordpress.com