Karen has been a creator since childhood, but a portrait class at age 14 unexpectedly propelled her into an art career. Her love for coffee was born in the late Kaldi’s Coffeehouse in New Orleans, where she would go everyday to sketch her fellow French Quarter locals while sipping a black coffee with a dash of nutmeg on top.

After moving back home to Tulsa, Oklahoma, she was introduced to the joys of top-quality espresso at Nordaggio’s Coffee, and finally the link between coffee and art connected when she began painting with it.

Soon she learned the art of espresso itself by becoming a barista, though art is now her full-time job. Painting in coffee is a refreshing break from Karen’s work in oils, watercolor, and pencil.

Listen to Karen
Coffee art is a truly unique art form. It requires a thoughtful and delicate touch. Capturing the depth of these classic works is only possible through a slow and sophisticated process of building layers upon layers of espresso.

I first thought of the idea of painting with coffee while watching rich, red-brown espresso pouring perfectly into my cup. As I enjoyed my hot latte, it occured to me that perhaps I could take my passion for coffee to a deeper level. So I dipped my brush and began painting, and to my delight, it worked beautifully.

Painting with coffee is a completely enjoyable experience…Most often I paint in the coffee shop immersed in the delicious aroma of freshly ground coffee and sounds of low conversation, steam, and grind, which continue to inspire me as I watch my brush add new dimensions to the painting.

I hope that each painting brings you into the same warm atmosphere.

People have been spoofing iconic works of art for decades as a form of creative, or re-creative, expression. Following this time-honored tradition is Tulsa, Oklahoma artist Karen Eland. Her versions of classic masterpieces include works by Matisse and Picasso, Whistler’s Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist’s Mother, more commonly known as “Whistler’s Mother,” and the Sistine Chapel scene with God and Adam by Michelangelo.

However, Eland uses only espresso as paint. That’s right. She doesn’t just drink her coffee–she paints with it. Preferring espresso “straight from the machine,” she sometimes lets it sit out for several days to get the darker tones she sometimes needs.

As if painting with coffee weren’t different enough, she takes the coffee theme one step further by depicting one or more cups of coffee in each of the spoofs.

So far, her most impressive feat is a more serious pair of murals displayed in two of Seattle’s Espresso Vivace coffee houses (see photo of Eland kneeling.) These works measure 3′ x 24′ and took six months each to paint.

Having always been enamored of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, I asked, “When you painted ‘Creation of Coffee,’ did you dither about who should be pouring the coffee for whom?” She replied,

“Yes, it was tricky. The way their hands were in the original made it seem that Adam could be holding the french press easier, so I came up with the idea that God created the coffee bean, then created man to have creativity, then man applied that and offers it back to God.”

So, God said, “Let there be coffee.” And it was good, very, very good.

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