—The Fine Art of Coffee Portraiture
Here’s more evidence to back up all those studies on boredom inspiring creativity: Meet Mike Breach, barista extraordinaire, who “paints” everything — and everyone — into his lattes. “I’m an esspressionist,” he proudly proclaims. Just last year, Breach was idling away his customer-less hours in the back of a hotel kitchen with only a dormant espresso machine for company. He was “so, so bored.” So he taught himself how to inscribe ornate hearts in coffee foam, with a bamboo skewer as his paintbrush. “People got so excited about it!” says Breach, so he took it further. Out came the teddy bears (“the girls just love those”), a portrait of that hotel boss (“I didn’t show it to him, but my coworkers and I laughed about it”), and Salvador Dalì, and Edward Scissorhands, and Beyoncé.
We’re at the Smile To-Go, and he’s frothing some milk behind the counter; the shushing of the machine almost drowns out his words. He reflects. “It’s like, if something is lacking, you’ve got to find a way to make it exciting and fun. Right? I mean, I’m so happy that my old job was so boring! Otherwise I wouldn’t be making these! And this is just the beginning. I want to start a movement.” The milk is now pillowy, foamy-soft — perfect for the latte Breach is about to pour. He stares into his empty chestnut-colored canvas, and suddenly looks up. “I’ve been wanting to try Snoop. Let’s do that, yea?”
My latte hearts just stopped looking like butts. Goldarnnit.
TEDxUofM 2013 Untapped_
I’ve never been more proud to have invested myself in such an incredible idea and with such moving people.
——Dove hired a forensic artist to draw how women see themselves versus how others see them - the results are moving.
“In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.”
On W Lafayette in Detroit lies an alternate universe. Aisles upon aisles of magical worlds are…
John K. King Used & Rare Books (W. Lafayette, Detroit) 3.9.13
—Something we all know at heart and may be instinctual to us. But how often do we really listen to someone else. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, this article came at a relevant time.
creatively yet cautiously curious
