For Dublin artist, vodka-soaked coffee is a pigment of his imagination
What do coffee stains remind you of? For Dublin artist Jarold Cadion, the answer is easy: watercolors. He discovered the hidden world of coffee art via an illtimed coffee spill as he was running late to the office, latte in hand.
More than 10 years later, his coffee portraits — paintings of celebrities and musicians rendered in coffee extract, instead of gouache — have caught the attention of art lovers as well as espresso fans. What began with a 20- by 30-inch Bob Marley portrait for his sister’s dental office has expanded to include a wide variety of portraits, commissions and collaborations with Philz Coffee, among others.
On a recent afternoon, Cadion talked technique and artistic inspiration — from a coffee shop, of course.
QHow did you start painting with coffee in the first place?
A
I had a great teacher at San Diego State who inspired me in the way I think when I paint with oils, acrylics and watercolors. Then 10 to 15 years ago, I moved to New York for a couple of years. Every day, I worked a nine-to-five, paper-pushing job. I would always get coffee in the morning — a double-shot latte or an Americano. One day, some of the coffee spilled (and) the stains reminded me of watercolors. So I put two and two together.
Q
You’re not dipping the brush in your morning latte, are you? How does this actually work?
A
It sort of started that way. I experimented with regular coffee, brewed coffee and instant
coffee. Five or six years ago, I found out how to make my own coffee extract. I grind my own beans to a certain coarseness and let it sit in vodka for a month or so. From there, I extract all the coffee and burn away the vodka — you can make it as thick as you want. I’m still messing around with it. It still gives me different results from different kind of beans or grinds, so it’s always a surprise.
Q
How is painting with coffee different from using traditional paint?
A
I compare it to watercolors and gouache, but after the coffee dries on the canvas, if you add water to it, it will reactivate. So you don’t want to mess up an area that you’ve worked on for hours by adding a little bit of water. You’ll be able to wipe it off.
Q
How did your time in New York influence your art?
A
I take the street graffiti style of New York into the way I paint. The more fine-tuned parts of my paintings are from my California side. All my grittiness, all the splatter I put on there, all the different ways I experiment with the coffee, that’s where New York comes out.
Q
Who’s your artistic role model?
AThe person who inspired me the most when I was a kid is David Mack, a comic book artist. He actually painted with watercolors. He told stories that way. I never knew that you could have such fine art in a comic book. Before Comic-Con got big, there were smaller conventions for artists and comic book people. So I actually met him when I was 16 or 17, and he liked my work.
Q
You’ve been doing coffee art for years. Has it changed you in any way?
A
It pushes my abilities to make a portrait with just one color. Trying to convey emotions, images and tones with coffee is difficult. It takes a lot of patience. But I’m more open to try something out and let it fail, then recover from it.