Finnish American Reporter

Vol 19, #11
November 2005

pg 16

Artists always have new ideas ‘brewing’

By Dave Maki

Duluth, Minn – When Andy Saur had his first taste of coffee – courtesy of his great-grandmother, Ester Backlund, who emigrated from Vaasa to the U.S. – it was so bitter to him he had to add tablespoons of sugar and a half-cup of cream so he could tolerate the taste.

“It was a taste that I haven’t forgotten,” he said. “To this day, I still do not drink coffee!”

Instead, he’s found a better option for the popular beverage. He paints with it.

Saur, along with his wife, Angel Sarkela-Saur (whose great-grandparents emigrated from Kurikka) have been painting with coffee for several years now, a hobby that started because they wanted to do something unique for their first art show at a coffee house in Duluth.

“Since our show was going to take place in a coffee house, we thought it would be appropriate to use coffee as our medium,” the couple – both 28-year-old University of Minnesota graduates – explained” We tried several techniques, such as using the coffee bean to sketch and making pastels from coffee grounds. These were not successful, so we finally decided to use the coffee as a watercolor.”

They brought 30 paintings to that first coffee-house show; all sold before the end of the day. Since then, they’ve created and sold hundreds of paintings, ranging from portraits of people or their pets, to nature scenes, to images reflecting their Scandinavian heritage.

“We believe our ‘Finnishness’ shows through in our subject manner,” they explained. “For instance, Angel has created two paintings from the ‘Kalevala.’ Andy has also created a few paintings inspired by Finland, including a painting of a sauna and a fun take on Finland’s Coat of Arms; instead of the sword in the hand of the lion, a cup of coffee is there instead!”

That painting, they said, is to show that Finland is the number one country in the world for coffee consumption.

“That’s what I like about the Finnish people,” Andy said. “They are very proud of who they are and what they can accomplish.”

The Finns also like what Angel and Andy have accomplished. Their work was exhibited in Kurikka at the Kurikka-Seura in August of 2004.

“It was received with great support and we found out that it was the most successful are show that museum has ever had,” they said. “After that show, the works traveled to Turku and we displayed until recently.”

The Finns will also be further exposed to Angel and Andy’s work in the near future. The couple will be featured, along with numerous other Finnish Americans, in a film documentary filmmaker Erkki Määttänen, who visited the Midwest last summer. The documentary will be aired on YLE television and in other Nordic countries in 2006.

The couple might be in Finland for the documentary’s premiere, in fact.

“We are planning on returning to Finland next August for another family reunion in Turku,” they said. “One of our goals is to live in Finland for an extended amount of time to be immersed in its culture. We would love to learn more about Finland by experiencing it first-hand.”

“It is difficult to find the resources to make this opportunity happen, but we are working toward it. Our art would be tremendously affected by living in Finland, and it would be exciting to see what ideas and concepts we could come up with.”

Based on past feedback, it’s a safe assumption their audiences would agree.