Coffee Art® | Announcements

April 30, 2007
This was a fun little site that we popped on this past weekend. Our artwork was featured on Maxi Coffee and was fun to see a blog written about us in French::

Peindre avec du café, Andrew et Angel, deux artistes peintres étonnants.

Andrew Saur and Angel Sarkela-Saur sont deux artistes originaux.

Le coté original tient à la matière première utilisée, le café !

Ils exposent sur JustCoffeeArt une centaine d'oeuvres, et c’est impressionnant de voir ce qu’on peut faire avec un expresso ou un grand latte.

A loose translation:

To paint with coffee, Andrew and Angel, are two painters amazing painters.

Andrew Saur and Angel Sarkela-Saur
are two original artists.

The original works are created using the basic material, the coffee!

They exhibit on JustCoffeeArt over a hundred works, and it is impressive to see what one can do with an expresso or large a latte.

April 28, 2007
We are continuing my birthday celebration with my family today. Angel, Gidget and I started off by taking a hike at one of our places along the North Shore. It is Minnesota's most popular State Park for good reason. It is beautiful at anytime of the year and there is always something new to see. Gidget loves hiking around and seeing what is around the next bend of the trail.

After hiking around for some time, it was off to my parent's for dinner and a family celebration. It was beautiful weather and unseasonably warm. It was quite nice!

My dad has a twin brother, Lyle. He and his wife, Pat, gave me a very special birthday present. It is a family heirloom that was once held by my great-grandfather, whom I was named after, Andrew Saur. I am thinking that it is made out of pewter and is over a hundred years old. His initials and some Norwegian text are inscribed on the box. It reads:

Minne på 69 Årsdagen i Norge fra Svigerinner og Svogre

and I think it translates to:

Happy 69th Birthday from your brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law

April 27, 2007
Today is my thirtieth birthday and it was quite uneventful, which was good! The highlight of the day was when Angel drove me an hour away for a surprise dinner to a Jamaican restaurant, The Whistling Bird. It was fantastic! I have only been there one other time years ago. Angel and I both ordered the Hawaiian Teriyaki Steak and it was one of the best steaks we have ever ordered. I would highly recommend it! While we were waiting for our meal, Angel had me close my eyes and not open until she said so. Soon, I heard 'Happy Birthday' being played on the steel drum! Angel was playing it to me and she gave me my own little steel drum for my birthday! I have always wanted one, ever since I was a little boy. I have no idea how to play it, but it will sure be fun to learn how. Thanks Angel!

April 23, 2007
We received some exciting news from Italy today! Our Coffee Art ® was featured in one of Italy's premier newspapers, la Repubblica. We were contacted by the photo editor a few weeks ago, asking if we would be interested in being a part of their gallery. Of course, we said 'Yes!' La Repubblica has designed in online gallery of our works and we are featured here:

¡Viva Italia!

April 21, 2007
Today, we celebrated our latest Coffee Art® opening at the Sisu Café. Since the Sisu Café is a Finnish-themed coffee & tea house, we exhibited some of our Finnish related creations.

Here is a little video documentary of explanations of our Finnish inspired works of art:

Shown here are several of Angel's relatives who ventured out to see our works.

This is one of my classmates from the University of Minnesota Duluth, Ang. We had several design classes together. When the last showing of the 'Coffee Flavored' episode of Unwrapped aired on the Food Network a couple of weeks ago, she heard about our Coffee Art® and asked if we would be showing anytime soon. Sure enough, we had an exhibition up, and she was able to attend with some friends. It was great to see former classmates!

In addition to classmates from the University, we had friends show up from my hometown of Two Harbors. It was great to see and catch up with friends.

My parents, sister and her husband, cousins and my uncle attended the show and it was great to have family support.

Thank you for making our latest art exhibition a success!

April 20, 2007
We have been anticipating this day for a couple of months now. Angel's brother, Rusty, returned from Iraq tonight. He had been deployed on President's Day and was extended for an additional week. Rusty looks really good and it is great to finally have him home. Yes, if you have been following, Mr. Gnome arrives home as well from his latest adventure. Here is a little video documentary of his homecoming:

April 18, 2007
Finally it is Spring and all the ice and snow have melted. It is one of our favorite times of the year when we take our scooters out of storage and the riding season begins.

The scooters are our main modes of transportation from April until the snow flies in November.

With fuel prices creeping up again, riding the scooter makes the trip to the fuel pump less dreadful. We can usually go a week and a half between fill ups and average 90-100 miles per tank. The savings add up and this will be the fifth season that we will be driving the scooters.

Besides the financial benefits of driving the scooter, it is just so much fun. They are much more engaging and active on the road. Parking is never a problem, and they are stylish!

Even Gidget gets to come along on scooter rides. When she sees the red backpack come out, she becomes excited and jumps right into the pack. She loves the ride and see the world go by.

I would love to see more scooters on the road. Less fuel, less noise, benefits the environment, and just plain fun. Plus, they always put a smile on your face. The world would be a happier place if everyone drove a scooter!

April 16, 2007
This fun little painting that Angel created shows Gidget dancing around in a shower of coffee beans.

A stop/action animation was created of this coffee painting and it can be viewed here.

April 15, 2007
Our dear neighbor Ruth surprised us at the door with a fresh baked loaf of Finnish pulla bread. It was very delicious and being right out of the over made it even more scrumptious. Thanks Ruth!

April 14, 2007
We came across a blog about our Coffee Art® and it appears to be from Brazil or Portugal, since it is written in Portuguese. A loose translation reads:

"The paintings that will see are painted with oil or watercolor or no traditional technique, but that spilling coffee and painting with the liquid on a surface. Incredible the creative thing that somebody can get to be."

http://www.eliax.com/

April 13, 2007
We are announcing our latest art opening at the Sisu Café in St. Paul. It is on Saturday,April 21 from 4-6pm and it should be a lot of fun. If you are in the area, please stop on by to say 'Hello!'

April 12, 2007
Gidget has a new friend in the neighborhood. She is a nine-week old Boston Terrier named Truffles. She is very adorable and reminds of when Gidget was a little pup. I hope that Gidget and Truffles will have lots of playdates together.

April 11, 2007
We can tell when a rerun of the 'Coffee Flavored' episode of Unwrapped airs on the Food Network. Our inbox is full of e-mails saying "I saw you guys on the Food Network last night!" It is a lot of fun and great to hear from people from all over the country.

We were filmed by the Food Network many years ago now, and it was a great experience. The film crew was at our house for over nine hours for a segment that lasted only several minutes. But the day went by fast and we have wonderful memories.

For those of you who missed the episode,our segment is featured here.

April 10, 2007
There was a huge spike in our web stats and we did some research on where all the traffic was coming from. Apparently we were featured on digg.com and we were receiving lots of compliments on our Coffee Art®. We received a huge amounts of e-mails and interest in our coffee paintings. So, whoever submitted our site, thank you!

April 9, 2007
We are completing several new Coffee Art® paintings and will be sharing our latest works on this page over the next few weeks. Stop/action animation of each painting was created with these paintings.

The first painting is called Italian Roast. The painting was created using, Italian Roast coffee, of course! This conceptual work features a gondola scene through romantic canals of Venice.

Here is the link to view the stop/action.

April 2 , 2007
We have set up our latest Coffee Art® Exhibition at the Sisu Café in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. Sisu is a Finnish term that could be roughly translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. We are excited to be showing here with our Finnish heritage. We plan on having an art opening in mid-April. We will keep you posted.