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