Exciting news from the
Coffee Artists! ™

October 19, 2005
Today was my grandmother's 75th Birthday. Since Angel and I do not have any children yet, Gidget is the child/grandchild of the family. She is the center of attention at family gatherings and my grandparents have a special place in their hearts for Gidget. We wanted to design something special for my grandmother's birthday, and we came up with idea of using Gidget as face of a clock. We found a nice, elegant clock, but the face was really busy and hard to tell the time. The cashier mentioned how difficult it was to read and we told her of our plans of replacing it. It is difficult not to get a fun photo of Gidget, she is very photogenic. After sifting through many photos, we found one that seemed to represent the clock face well. My grandmother opened her present and laughed. She asked how we did it, and being artists, we just shrugged our shoulders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 18, 2005
When we heard that there was going to be a film made in our area of he world, my brother, Chris, and Angel wanted to sign up to be extras in the film. The movie is called North Country and is inspired by the true story of women workers in the taconite mines and the sexual harassment they faced. There was some controversy about the movie being made and would rekindle ill memories. The movie is directed by Niki Caro and stars Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, and Frances McDormand.

But most people feel that it was a story that needed to be told and the filming proceeded. Chris and Angel were excited to see if they could be cast as extras. I wanted to be an extra as well, but the film crew said that significant amounts of time needed to be dedicated to be an extra. I thought I would not be able to get time off from work. So, Chris and Angel stood in line at a local mall for hour to have their photo taken and to fill out an application.

A few weeks went by and we didn't hear anything, but then Chris received a call from casting. He was asked to be an extra in the Union Hall scene where Charlize's character makes a speech. Chris said it was real eye-opening to the dialogue of what was being said and the way it was said.

Then, a few days later, Angel received a call from casting. She was asked to be an extra for a Friday and a Saturday. They asked if anyone else she knew would like to be a part as well. Since it was mostly on a weekend, I was able to be with her.

On the Friday, it was a scene where a first communion was taking place. The Assistant Director had us seated in the first pew of the church. It was a lot of sitting, the scene was no more than a few seconds, but we sat in the pew for over four hours.

The next day, we went to a dance hall where the reception after the first communion was taking place. As we walked in, the Assistant Director asked us if we knew how to polka, and we said, "Heck yes, we do!" So, we were on the dance floor, polka-ing away. During the scene where we were dancing, Charlize was to make her way through the crowded dance floor with her dinner plate, continuing onto her table. This scene was filmed many times, from different angles. In one scene, we were really getting into the dancing, and Charlize walks right next to us, and we knock into her plate, sending her dinner roll flying. "Cut!" yells the Assistant Director, and we laughed.

Angel was inspired by the filming process and created painting that reflects the ideology of the movie; standing up and fighting for what is right. After we were done filming the polka scene, we asked one of the crew if they could give the painting to Ms. Caro. The girl then brought the painting to her, and not more than twenty seconds later, Ms. Caro approached us, with a huge smile on her face. We talked to her for several minutes about the artwork, what it was painted from, and Angel's inspiration. Ms. Caro seemed really touched and she said, "I can't wait to hang it up in my house in New Zealand." We are honored that Ms. Caro has an original work of ours.

Tonight, after months of waiting, was an advanced screening of the movie. To get tickets, you had to register and have your name drawn. Luckily, Chris had his name drawn and won two tickets. Since he and Angel started off on this endeavor together, it was fitting for them to see the film first. The advanced screening was sponsored by a local jeweler. The tickets said to arrive at 5:30 for pre-movie activities and the movie would start at 7:30. As Chris and Angel walked into the lobby of the theater, the usher asked if they had VIP passes or tickets from the drawing. They had the regular tickets and proceeded in. There was another room where the VIP's were in. They could see everyone else with the wine, champagne, and gift bags. And here they were, sitting on the floor in the theater lobby, waiting two hours for the movie to start. This was a long time to wait and they witnessed the preferential treatment given to the VIP's. This sort of class separation was exactly what the theme of the movie was fighting against. It was poorly planned and very insensitive. The corporate sponsors of this event should be ashamed of themselves

After the movie, the local television station was in the lobby. Chris calls me up and tells me to turn the news on quickly. I hit the 'record’ button and there was the reporter, interviewing Angel and Chris. Angel did a wonderful job articulating the message of the film and Chris also did a fine job. Angel said it was exciting to see us dancing on the big screen, and I can't wait to see it for myself this weekend!

 

 

October 14, 2005
We were recently featured in an article in the Timber Home Living magazine. From the article:

A piping hot cup of coffee may already be the perfect morning pick-me-up, but two Minnesota artists are out to prove that there’s more to coffee than just cream and sugar. Whether you’re a daily visitor at your neighborhood Starbucks or just an occasional caffeine imbiber, you’ll agree that this coffee on canvas is anything but your average joe.

The entire article can be read here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 13, 2005
We were invited to participate in the 'Food as Art' project at Pizza Luce. We are displaying several of our works for the show. At the opening, there were all kinds of food inspired artwork. There were huge fiberglas donuts, pasta art, art created from Life Savers and one that had Circus Peanuts. It was really fun and unique. There was a costume party where people dressed up as sushi, a costume of a table for two for a spaghetti dinner, and greek goddess of wine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 12, 2005
One of our Icelandic acquaintances was having a performance at the local university planetarium Snorri Guðmundsson presented his "Cosmic Journey." It was quite interesting. He is a composer and he also created animations of galactic endeavors to complement his music. To read more Snorri and listen to his works, check out his site at www.snorri.com

 

 

 

October 9, 2005
When we were in elementary school, the teacher would say, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” As students, we were taught that Christopher Columbus was the European discoverer of the New World. This is not necessarily true. Nordic explorer Leif Erickson not only discovered the New World nearly five hundred years before Columbus, but he established a settlement in what is now known as Newfoundland, Canada.

We wanted to bring attention to Leif’s courageous voyage to the New World.

It was in 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed October 9th as ‘Leif Erickson Day.’ We wanted to take this opportunity and use our artistic talent to create a plaque and a flag to commemorate Leif Erickson Day.

On Leif Erickson Day, we displayed our artwork at the statue of Leif Erickson in Leif Erickson Park here in Duluth, Minnesota. As our art was displayed, we noticed many people stop and look. We helped make people aware of the historic significance of Leif Erickson’s voyage to North America. Our message is getting out, and we want even more people to be aware of this Nordic Explorer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 5, 2005
We were featured in an article, ’Grounds for Good Art,’ Paynesville Press. Here is a segment of the article:

“In August, Mary and I took a trip to the north shore to spend a couple days with a friend. We stopped for coffee at The Vanilla Bean, a picturesque little coffee shop in Two Harbors. That's another thing I like: the quaint atmosphere found in many of today's coffee shops. The walls in this particular shop were adorned with over a dozen paintings, all in sepia tones of some tint. Many paintings were wonderfully whimsical and capricious. Others had an appealing spiritual quality. Some even reminded me of Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post covers. Each, in its own way, was wonderful.”

Click here to read the entire article.

October 4, 2005
This is the third anniversary of when I proposed to Angel. She writes:

Andy and I decided to take a trip to Iceland in 2003. We had heard that it was a unique place with changing landscapes of volcanoes, hot springs and icebergs. While in Iceland, we rented a car and traveled along the west coast near Snæfellsjökull and were exploring this new country.

There was a particular pass that took us up into the mountains filled with beautiful green moss covered terrain. We had been driving for a while when Andy suggested we stop and do a little hiking. He pointed to a peak and said, "Let's go there." I went along and up we went.

We reached the peak, but realized it was just a ridge and the peak was further up. We reached the peak, but again, we were fooled. I became determined then to find this peak, so we went on. Finally, we reached the top. The view was breathtaking. We were surrounded by mountains and the ocean. Andy set up our camera to take a timed photo of the two of us.

The first picture went great. Andy set up the timer for the next photo; only he paused before he came to sit near me. I was worried he wouldn't make it in the picture. Suddenly, he pulled out a little black box, knelt on his knee and asked, "Will you marry me?" I knew my answer and said yes so fast that the timed photo got a picture of our kiss after I had already said 'yes!'

We were on top of the world... and still are today!

October 3, 2005
For my work, we have a stretch of road that we clean up for the Adopt-A-Highway program. Recently on one of our cleanups, we came across this piece of paper. Upon closer inspection, we picked it up and saw that it was a birth certificate! We have heard of some bizarre items being tossed or lost on the side of the road, but we have never heard of anything like this before. The certificate was in really good condition considering it was on the side of the road for several weeks. It had all the information about the baby and his parents. We especially liked the little footprints. We are sure they they have been looking high and low for this document. All the info was there, and we looked up their phone number. We called, but the line was disconnected. There were a couple of other names listed, so we thought we might see if we could get a hold of a relative of theirs. Sure enough, the first number we called got us in contact with the baby's great-grandparents.They were surprised, of course, and were excited to look at the find. We are going to mail it to them and will be back in the rightful parent's hands.

 

 

 

 

October 1, 2005
From an earlier post, we mentioned that we were a subject of a Finnish film documentary by Erkki Määttänen. In this issue of the New World Finn, the article describes the interviewing process and how Erkki plans on using the fifty hours of footage for his project.

"One of his techniques he may use in the documentaries involves the work of Andy Saur and Angel Sarkela-Saur, two artists who paint using coffee as their medium. Erkki Määttänen gave them specific video frames from his interviews with his subjects. Andy and Angel then created paintings from those frames while Määttänen filmed them in the process of painting. His intent is to begin each segment of the documentaries showing the film emerging from the paintings. The cover of this issue of the New World Finn is a spin-off from that technique. The cover was created by Andy Saur and Angel Saur."