Coffee Art® | Announcements

June 20, 2007
This was fun to see our Coffee Art® on Virango, from Poland. Our good friend, John Fiscus, in our coffee painting, "John and Joe" is featured in this news blog. We are not up on our Polish, but here is the text:

Galeria obrazów Andrew Saur i Angel Sarkela-Saur. Niby nic specjalnego ale ... artyści malują swoje obrazy kawą - czy to czyni te obrazy szczególnie godnymi uwagi ? Nie wiem zobaczcie i oceńcie sami ...

We can't wait to tell John that he is famous in Poland.

June 16, 2007
Keeping with the Brazilian theme, Boca Berta, writes from South America::

Você algum dia imaginou que o pretinho de cada dia, pudesse ser usado de tinta para pintura de quadros? Pois é, dois artistas americanos usam somente café para pintar suas telas, o casal Andrew Saur e Angel Sarkela-Saur, ao longo dos anos, produziram inúmeros trabalhos usando o pretinho. Interessante é que a matéria-prima, o dito cujo café, não tem aditivo nenhum. Dei uma espiada na galeria e achei muito interessante, coloquei algumas imagens pra vocês, mas quem quiser apreciar mais alguma vale a pena link

It seems that our Coffee Art® is quite popular in Brazil.

Thanks, Boca Berta!

June 13, 2007
Our Coffee Art® turns up this time in South America. This blog, Blog do H4ck3rik, writes from Brazil:

Pinturas usando apenas café

Dois artistas americanos realizam pinturas usando apenas café como matéria prima. Ao longo dos anos, eles realizaram centenas de obras usando a matéria-prima única, sem aditivos.O casal Andrew Saur e Angel Sarkela-Saur, ambos formados pela Universidade de Minnesota, em Duluth, afirma que são os primeiros a usarem o processo para obter tonalidades muito escuras. Outros artistas já haviam usado banhos de café para realizar desenhos e sombreados.

Uma das primeiras exposições das obras foi realizada em uma cafeteria em Duluth. O acervo pode ser conferido e comprado a partir do site http://www.justcoffeeart.com.

Thanks, Blog do H4ck3rik!

June 11, 2007
We were recently featured on an art website in Italy, artsblog.it

It reads:

E' proprio vero, si può dipingere con qualsiasi cosa! Dopo i ritratti realizzati con la marmellata e altri materiali commestibili di Vik Muniz e dopo i dipinti con la polvere di Scott Wade, stavolta vi parliamo del caffè.

Chi ne ha fatto un'arte, non solo per il palato, è il duo Andrew Saur e Angel Sarkela-Saur e il loro universo creativo è tutto interno al mondo di Starbucks. Il duo americano usa il caffè come mezzo espressivo e le caffetterie come spazio espositivo privilegiato per ospitare le proprie opere.

A partire da una tazza di caffè puro al 100%, che costituisce la tinta più forte, i due realizzano sfumature progressivamente più chiare per i loro dipinti monocromi usando l'acqua come diluente. Per rendere meno deperibili i lavori, sono completati con una passatadi vernice acrilica trasparente. I soggetti ritratti non sono necessariamente legati al mondo del caffè, come si può constatare sul sito dedicato alla "coffee art".

June 7, 2007
This past weekend we visited a local pottery studio, The Pottery Burn. It is a studio where we pick a piece off the shelf, create a design on it, paint it, and then the staff will fire your piece. It takes about a week to get the finished piece.

It was a rainy, miserable day this past Saturday. We didn't want to be stuck in the house and this was the perfect solution to the rainy day blues.

It was hard to choose which piece we wanted to glaze. There were so many options and possibilites. But not too much longer, we found what we were looking for. Just the other day, Gidget broke her food dish when she was demanding to be fed. On the bottom shelf, we found her replacement dish. It wasn't exactly a dog dish, but it would work out really well for Gidget's little face.

We spent over three hours working on the design, but it went by so fast. It was fun to work together on this piece and we had to wait several days for it to be fired.

But, today was the day when we could finally pick it up. We very pleased on how it turned out and we hope that Gidget will enjoy her new dinnerware. We will have to be sure that she isn't too demanding with this new dish. We don't want it to end up like the previous one!

June 5, 2007
Our Coffee Art® has been featured on the Dutch site, Gedicht.punt.nl. The site writes:

De zon, daar zal je ‘m hebben -

iedere dag komt hij weer op

om ’s avonds weg te ebben,

steeds die weergaloze flop

En elke dag verstrijkt ook weer

de tijd, gestaag en traag,

ach, kon ik maar eens zappen

naar een andere vandaag

Gehuld in ‘t zelfde kloffie

sjok ik dagelijks door de sleur

om elf uur drink ik koffie,

mijn dagelijks bakkie pleur

Verbijsterd luister ik als op het leven wordt geproost -

Voor mij schuilt in mijn bakkie hoogstens schrale, lauwe troost

Not quite a direct translation, but here it goes:

The sun, there you ‘ will have m. -

every day rises he

for ’ s evening too ebben,

always that unequalled flop

And each day expires also

the time, steady and slowly,

ah, I could zap

to another today

Wrapped in in ‘ t same coffee

I trudge daily by the rut

at eleven o'clock I drink coffee,

my daily cb-set chuck

Bewildered lustre I as on living am toasted -

For me hides in my cb-set at the most poor, lukewarm consolation

June 4, 2007
Our good Finnish friend, Paavo, gave us a bundle of fresh cut birch leaves that he wove together.

Finns often use short bundles of birch branches, called "vihtas," to tap against their bodies to stimulate the skin. These same birch branches can be laid on top of the rocks for a few seconds while water is poured through them to create a very pleasant birch aroma in the room.

Since Paavo knew that we enjoyed our sauna, he thought that we would enjoy an authentic vihta.

So, we held the vihta over the sauna rocks while we doused the branches and rocks with water. The steam rose through the leaves and the sauna filled with a nice aroma. Then we tapped the branches across our back and legs and it was a great sauna experience.

Thanks Paavo!

June 2, 2007
Today we were featured on gather.com. It is a very nice write-up:

When I am wearing my other hat, I am somewhat of a coffee entrepreneur and enthusiast. I have also taught courses titled “The Art of Espresso”—meaning the art of preparing a good shot. But Andy Saur and Angel Sarkela Saur take the art of coffee to a whole new level.

A year or so ago I attended a showing of their work at the North End Arts Gallery in Superior, WI. They filled the second floor gallery with images. Images they had painted using coffee. The sepia tones offered a quite nostalgia or a subtle sophistication. Some images relate to coffee and some are just plain fun, especially the ones that featured their dog Gidget.

Coffee Art is the name of their artistic endeavor and their unique brand of art has been featured in publications around the world. They have an excellent Web site that captures their work and their experience working in such a unique medium. When visiting the Web site, don't miss the exciting coverage of their trip to Manhattan for Starbuck's National Coffeebreak last March.

Click here for full article.

June 1, 2007
Today we set up our latest Coffee Art® exhibition at the Red Mug Coffeehouse. The exhibition will last the duration of the month of June. We will keep you posted on an opening reception.

Angel is struck by inspiration, and the gears start to gind with her imagination.

This is a fun little Coffee Art® painting. Some people swear that they are non-functional before they have their first cup of coffee. This painting is dedicated to these sleepy-heads. Much like oil in a car engine, coffee is the lifeforce for some people. It is what revs them up in the morning. This painting is entitled "Gets the Gears Grinding" and it shows the coffee working through the gears.

A stop/action animation of this painting can be seen here.

This is one of Andy's favorite Coffee Art® works. He is a Seinfeld addict and Costanza is one of his favorite characters. He thinks that there should be an all Seinfeld channel...