November 23, 2007
This evening we were featured on Fox with an interview about us and our Coffee Art®. It was a different perspective than previous interviews, and provides a unique view of us and our art.

Please click the 'play' button to the right to view the segment on this evening's newscast.

Lisa Waldrup and Carrie Kohlmeier did a fantastic job and we would like to thank them.




November 19, 2007
Today our Coffee Art® was featured on The Coffee Culture:

Coffee art
"There is some real cool art done with coffee. Coffee art is a real cool technique and not everybody is perfect at it. There are some interesting designs which can be made with coffee. Artists have been using coffee as washes for sketches and other shading for some time now. Many such artists consider coffee as an interesting medium to create art. 

As early as 1993 some of artists novel coffee art inventions were making the front covers of major coffee magazines in the United States. The credit for the first art design with the help of coffee goes to, though heavily debated, Saul Bolanos.
American artists, Andy Saur and Angel Sarkela have been creating art with coffee since the past 3 or more years. For them, coffee has become the artistic medium. The reason why they started painting with coffee is an interesting one. They were preparing for an art show in a coffee house and they wanted to do something unique. Thus, they experimented with coffee, initially used coffee beans but failed, and then they used coffee as a watercolor and they succeeded. 
The number one mistake that most people and journalist make is to assume that there is one single coffee art process for making the great variety of coffee art forms offered by the artist. That is very far from the truth. It is impossible to use the same coffee process for making coffee images for example on glazed ceramics, and to use it also for making coffee art on stones or spoons. Each challenge is plagued with a legion of technical difficulties that only time and indefatigable perseverance can resolve. Most of the time success comes only after many years of failure. Thus, we see that coffee art is a difficult process to master.

Coffee art is more than just artistry; it is creativity plus art. You need to be very creative to produce art with coffee. You will make a lot of mistakes before you hit the right spot. This was the way coffee artists learnt their lessons. They realized that using coffee as a watercolor was the most effective way. The artist will first sketch out an idea, then start brewing a really strong pot of coffee that is really dark and thick! From there, water is added to gain the subtle tones of brown. Finally, a clear coat of acrylic is added to preserve the art and a painting of delicate beauty is finished.

F or artists, working with coffee is a unique and satisfying experience. Being such a unique medium, coffee art catches people off guard. Their reaction is a one of complete amazement and surprise when they are informed that the work they are viewing has been made with coffee. Coffee art shows that artists can still be creative and only sky is the limit as far as artists are concerned. You have to see these forms of art to believe the creativity of the artists."

Thank you The Coffee Culture!

November 18, 2007
Many of you know of Andy's Vikings Kickoff campaign of changing their old kickoff song to Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song." Yes, it was successful and during today's game, the song was played in the background at the player introductions as well as the opening kickoff. It is great to see that the Vikings are still playing the song and that we had a direct influence on it  It is really exciting to be watching the game and hearing Robert Plant's battle cry and the driving beats pulsing in the Metrodome. (If you can ignore the commentators, you can hear the "Immigrant Song" in the background of this video clip.) We are very happy that the organization listens to suggestions from their fans and does something about it. And the Vikes won 29-22!


November 16, 2007
We were recently featured on a German website:

Kaffeemalerei - Bilder mit hohem Koffeinanteil

Dass Kaffee neben dem puren Trinkgenuss auch interessante gesundheitliche Seiten zu bieten hat, belegen mittlerweile eine Reihe von Studien. Dass die schwarze Bohne aber auch als Rohmaterial für Kunstwerke dienen kann, beweisen seit einigen Jahren zwei experimentierfreudige Amerikaner.
Die Idee kam Andrew Saur und Angel Sarkela-Saur bei der Planung einer Kunstausstellung in Minnesota. Einzigartig und kreativ sollten die Werke sein, die sie in einem ortsansässigen Kaffeehaus ausstellten, und so entschlossen sie sich, eine Reihe von Arbeiten zu präsentieren, deren Basismaterial aus Kaffee bestand. Als wirksamste Technik erwies sich dabei eine Art Aquarellmalerei, bei der ein besonders stark gebrühter Kaffee die Grundlage für die
Farbe liefert. Unterschiedliche Brauntöne werden durch Zugabe von Wasser erzielt. Eine farblose Acrylschicht verschließt das Werk und sorgt so für seinen Erhalt. Weitere Materialzusätze bleiben außen vor.

Bis heute hat das Künstlerduo mehrere hundert Werke auf dieser Basis erstellt, und ein Ende ist nicht in Sicht. Ihr Themenspektrum umfasst dabei unter anderem Portraits und Landschaften, aber selbstverständlich auch alles rund um die schwarze Bohne selbst. Das Besondere der Bilder ist dabei vor allem eine auffällig dunkle Schattierung, die sich in vergleichbaren Verwendungsformen von Kaffee in der Kunstgeschichte so bisher nicht finden lässt. Welche Technik die beiden hierzu anwenden, bleibt jedoch ihr Geheimnis.

Originale von Saur und Sarkela-Saur liegen preislich zwischen 100 und 8000 Euro. Eine Galerie findet sich auf der Homepage des Künstlerduos unter www.justcoffeeart.com.

We hope that the Germans like our Coffee Art®!

November 11, 2007
Here is a Closer Look at a painting inspired by our good friend, John Handy.

John is a good friend of ours that we have known for many years. He is a very interesting person and has a great story to share with us each time we visit. He should be writing stories as well as binding the books.

Click on the link to see the stop/action animation: John the Bookmaker

Here is his page in our gallery.

November 7, 2007
Our Coffee Art® was recently featured in Bean & Leaf magazine:

November 4, 2007
Andy has a fascination with his Nordic heritage. He is enchanted with the Norse sagas and the lives of the Vikings. Even in death, the Viking funeral is awe inspiring. This is a Closer Look at Voyage to Valhalla.

His ship set ablaze, a king begins his trip to Valhalla.


With the nights getting longer and the winds howling from the north, Andy imagines what life was like for the Vikings.  It would be quite the adventure.

Click on the link to see the stop/action animation: Voyage to Valhalla

Here is the page in our gallery.