Coffee Art® | Announcements

September 7, 2005
Since we were the lucky recipients of a new roof this past month, we decided it was time to repaint the house. It was the first time that we have had to repaint the house, and we hope that we wouldn't get in over our heads. All I can say is 'thank goodness that we have a small house!' It took most of our three day weekend, but it was well worth it. We would have been done on Sunday evening, but we ran out of sunlight. The painting wasn't the hard part, it was going up and down the ladder a thousand times that wore me out. If made for a great workout! The last project for the exterior of the house we want to accomplish this summer is to replace our gutters. Then, we should be set for a few years.

September 12, 2005
Today is our second anniversary. It is hard to believe that time flies by too fast. We promised that we wouldn't give each other gifts, but we still went back on our word. Angel surprised me with an ancient Viking game similar to chess called 'Hnefatafl.' It is very fascinating! The Vikings would play this game and it takes cunning and creative strategy to win.

Keeping with the Viking theme, I gave Angel an Icelandic wool poncho. I made a deal with a gentleman from Iceland-Goods.com by doing some design work for him, and he sent me this poncho. It is quite lovely and Angel was very excited and is looking forward to curling up in it on cold Nordic nights.

September 16, 2005
Since we had painted the house, another project we had accomplished this summer was taking down of a dying spruce tree in our back yard. We really liked the tree and wanted to keep it, but the top ten feet was dead, and we didn't want the tree to fall on our house or the neighbor's. So, we had the tree removed, but left seven feet of the stump. We had plans for a carving.

It was a really dense tree, and it took quite a while to find the right tool for the job. We tried handsaws, chisels and a chain saw, but we couldn't get the right control. So, we mentioned our project to our friend Gerry, and he said he had the perfect tool for the job. He had an angle grinder with a saw that had chain saw teeth. It worked like a charm! It took a little while to remove large sections of wood, but the control was second-to-none.

September 19, 2005
So, after a good weekend of carving, the gnome we had planned was finally near completion. It was very satisfying to have the right tool and progress could be seen. It was addicting to work on, and would love to carve another one. Angel is working on a color scheme and hopefully it will be painted later this week.

September 20, 2005
Every Tuesday in the summer, we would have fresh flowers delivered to our front door. I had traded some web site design for the flower delivery. It was a nice barter to have fresh flowers to brighten our week. Gidget especially loves to walk up to the flowers, pause, and sniff the blooms. She is particularly fond of sunflowers!

September 24, 2005
It was truly a memorable experience for Angel and me on September 24th. I was surprising Angel with tickets to the Sigur Rós concert for our second anniversary. I had purchased my tickets through the band’s website way back in July, and it was such a challenge to keep it a secret for so many months! Finally, after all this time, it was the day of the concert. We had to drive a couple of hundred miles to get to the State Theater, so we left early in the morning. At lunch, Angel was giving me twenty questions about what we were going to be doing this evening. She knew something special was happening and she asked if it had anything to do with Sigur Rós and there was a twinkle in my eye. She was very excited and a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders, and I could finally talk about what I have wanted to tell her for months!

Since it was early afternoon, we headed over to the box office to see if we could pick up our tickets at will call. Sure enough, we had tickets waiting. We were to be seated in the balcony, second row. At first I was disappointed to be sitting in the balcony, but then was just fine to know that we would be able to see and view everything from a great vantage point.

Since we are both artists and love Sigur Rós, we had done a painting of their ‘sleepwalker’ graffiti that we viewed in Iceland several years ago. It is titled ‘On the Streets of Reykjavik’ and was created by both of us using coffee as the medium. I had brought the painting along, and asked the box office where I could deliver it to the band manager. The box office assistant told us to go around to the stage door and talk to security. So, we went around and entered the stage door. The security asked if they could help us, and we told them we had a painting to deliver to the band. He radios to floor, and a gentleman comes out, but he said that he was going to get someone higher up in the food chain. As he turns around, another person was walking around, stops and looks at my wife and I and with our painting. He walks down and a huge smile emerges, he asks “What is that?” I told him that it was a painting that we had created and wanted the band to have. I am trying to keep my excitement to a minimum, but we were talking to Kjartan and his wife was along side. I told him that it was created with coffee, and he replies “I love coffee!’ We talked about how I proposed to my wife in Iceland and how we have visited there many times. Kjartan had to get back to sound check, but he asked if we would like to hang out after the show! We of course replied, “That would be wonderful.” and headed out the door. It was amazing.

After a long and excruciating five hour wait, the show was about to start. Butterflies were tingling in our stomachs in the anticipation of the concert. The opening band of Amina was fantastic. They were very creative with their instruments which included the playing of wine glasses and a saw with a violin bow.

At long last, Sigur Rós takes the stage to a huge reception. The energy from everything around was building and the explosions of the sound are words that can not describe. The crowd was fairly decent, but there were a few too many flashes from cameras. But the one moment in the concert where I was disappointed was during ‘viðrar vel til loftárása’ where the audience lasted on a few seconds of silence. I guess some people didn’t understand.

After the show, we were ushered to the side and had our after show passes on. We were escorted down to the catering room where Orri was waiting and having a beer. He was quite shy and after the way he performed with all his intensity, was probably trying to get his energy back. Soon, Kjartan followed out with Jónsi and Georg. They came up to us and said that they really like the painting. Jónsi got out the Reyk vodka and poured everyone a shot and shouted ‘Skol!’ and we drank. We talked to Kjartan for quite a while, and he was very down to earth and easy to talk to. It was fun to converse about many things and I had to ask what was the longest silence during ‘viðrar vel til loftárása’ that they have experienced. And he thought it was about a half a minute or so. Then I replied, “What was the shortest?” and he said, “Tonight!” I knew it!

I had brought my camera and my Takk album along. I told them that I felt ridiculous, but asked if they wouldn’t mind signing my album and a few photos. They were more than happy and Jónsi takes the album from me. He looks at it and exclaims “Stupid American record labels!” kneels, slams the cd case, spine first onto the floor. He stands up and the rest of the band comes over and points to the folded edge, “There is supposed to be a spine on this case, but they didn’t do it right!” It was hilarious! They truly do care about all their work! So, they all signed the album and we take a few photos.

I really liked talking to the band, especially Kjartan. He said that when we come to Iceland again this next year, to go and visit him and their studio. He wrote down the information on the back of our after show pass. We will take him up on that offer.

It will be an evening that we will remember forever. It was an honor to meet the band and to know that they have one of our paintings. I know that they will inspire many more paintings.

September 29, 2005
In our back yard, we had a huge spruce tree, but sadly, it was dying. We would have really liked to have kept it, but the danger of it falling on our house, or the neighbor’s was not worth the risk. So, this summer we had to take it down, but left nine feet or so of the stump. We had an idea for a carving, and we hope that it would turn out as we had envisioned.

Finding the right tool was the hardest part. The wood was very solid and very difficult to carve. We tried the chain saw, reciprocating saw, hand saws, and chisels, all to no avail. But our friend said that he had the perfect tool for the job: an angle grinder that uses a saw with chain saw teeth. It worked wonderfully!

After a full weekend of carving, the gnome was taking shape and the progress could be seen with each passing minute. Finally, after many hours, it was complete. Angel then picked out the colors and proceeded to paint the gnome with oil paints thinned down with mineral spirits so the wood grain could still be visible.

The last detail we needed to do was to think of a name for our new gnome friend. Since we are both huge Sigur Rós fans, we thought that ‘starálfur’ would be a very fitting name. The name means 'staring elf' in Icelandic. We hope that he will watch over our home for many years to come.