As part of the final installment of the Lilla Rogers "Make Art that Sells" Bootcamp, we were to be inspired by our favorite drink. (See all the drinks in their glory here.)

Well, since 1996 mine has been c-o-f-f-e-e. I was working at Wunderman as a jr. art director at my first job out of school, and my first (or second?) client was the coffee company Gevalia. Also known as "The Official Coffee Purveyor of the Royal Court of Sweden." Honestly, ever since then, I have been hooked. Thinking of my good old basic deli NYC cups of coffee always gives me fond memories. Hence, initially I had thought I wanted to do something based upon the famous Anthora cup. Additionally, (as you can see later on in some sketches in this post), in graduate school I did a artist book professing my love for the hot beverage. However, this time I wanted to do something totally different.

I wanted to show passion and the ZING/POW/POP that my 3:00 coffee gives me every (or most) afternoons. :)

Below are my 2 final pieces. I had so much fun creating these that I definitely want to create more in the series.

These were created by doing a bunch of gouache sketches and then composing them digitally. I have been working this way for a while. Well, kind of. This was the first time with paint. (I have been creating monoprints and textures with paint and ink and then creating complex compositions digitally.) I started doing that for this assignment, but was disappointed in the result. It felt rich and dark like coffee, but not zingy and energetic like I had initially envisioned.

So, I took out my Acryla-Gouache paints (as i LOVE the colors!!) and started doing small paint studies. It had never been my intention to work as I had with my monoprints - but boy did I have fun once the process began. I had one of those zone moments where everything clicked. I am looking forward to having some time to develop this method further.

and now... a BLAST from the past... Coffee circa 2006

In 2006 I received my MFA from The University of the Arts in Book Arts and Printmaking. At some point there... I created a bunch of sketches around my obsession with coffee.

I created a final book but I actually think the sketches are actually pretty darn funny.