“The Art of Coffee”
Process:
It started with a spill, a spill that had dried and was left on the counter. Hours later, standing at the coffee maker pouring my cup, I looked down and noted the gentle fade from the center of the droplet to the hard almost black outer line at the edge. I found myself thinking how beautiful it was, how the gentle and lovely brown transitioned so perfectly into the deep dark line. I wanted to recreate it somehow, its warm lustrous earthy color, the perfect fade from dark to light. Why not allow it to recreate itself?
The use of a natural material like coffee leads one to natural processes and techniques, an accidental and incidental method develops over time. As you learn the way the material reacts with time, density, surface friction, surface angle, the surface tension of the material itself, exposure to heat, and most importantly, the evaporation process and the way the sediment forms when water leaves it and joins the atmosphere.
I start with an accident, a dropping of the coffee on the surface, a spill so to speak. From that initial chaos I follow the Coffee’s lead to where it naturally brings me, following and directing at the same time, introducing my sense of contrast, balance, and composition, while letting the coffee seep in the direction it finds for itself. My greatest joy as an artist is working with coffee. The invigorating smell of it in my studio, the feel of it on my hands, and watching it roll across the surface uncontrolled and uncontrollable. I add thick mixes and thin mixes, dropping deep almost black color into the piece here and there, but always the coffee determines what it will do.
At these times, fully flowing with the coffee and the natural gravity of it’s decent across the Formica, I feel as if I am dancing with nature, poetic as it sounds, and I am filled with a sense of glee. I am allowed this joy, this aroma, this beauty of earthy browns in my work, and I am thankful. I conduct, and the coffee performs, surprising me consistently with what it becomes. Sometimes I have an idea for the form I wish it to take, sometimes I let it guide me completely, but always the final image is decided by nature, and the way the material forms itself.
Then I walk away. As a piece dries over the course of days, it takes on it’s own form, and often the most pleasurable part is coming back to see what happened. Sometimes it turns out as I planned, most times not. I come into the room and look at what has been given to me, and often exclaim “Oh look at what you have done! So beautiful! Thank you Nature, thank you Coffee!”
I stand transfixed, looking into the depth of color and the transition from dark to light. The photographic nature of the piece is just that, it is the natural molecular particles finding their position in the evaporation process, creating an image that shifts color as naturally as mineral deposits in riverbeds. Ultimately, this work is an exploration of this natural shift, a presentation of how nature creates shade and transition of color.
History and Percolation of Coffee:
As the ground Coffee bean defuses becoming ubiquitous in water during percolation, Coffee itself has become ubiquitous in the world. Coffee has been a part of human life for hundreds of years, across civilizations, across class, religion, race, and sex. Coffee is as pervasive as painting, writing, music, and commerce. It wakes us up, focuses our mind, makes us sharp, and helps us think. We ache for it when we cannot have it, depend on it daily, and cultivate it worldwide. We take time for ourselves with it, spend time with each other sharing it, recreate it into new forms by mixing it with chocolate, alcohol, sugar, and cream. We use it in cake, candy, ice cream, and soda. It is part of breakfast, lunch, dinner and desert. It is a break from work, a stop on the way to work, and a treat during work. Like fine wine we blend it into culturally different tastes and viscosities, from Cuba to Turkey to Seattle to Japan. It’s presentation, how it is served, and what it is mixed with varies as much within a culture as between cultures. We seek to discover it’s health benefits and we ignore its detriments. We have made it a part of our lives.
We love coffee, we need coffee, we want coffee. It is necessary to our continued happiness and instrumental to our energetic creativity. It has become an integral part of my work, just as it became an intrigue part of my day. It is my pleasure to produce a work of art that pays homage to this wonderful part of all our lives.