A Cup of Coffee

Happy New Week Folks! This week is all about coffee. I'll leave it at that for now. Coffee,

one of the world's favorite beverages, is a TADA! in itself. How can we make it even more TADA!? You'll have to tune in to find out.

Let me start with something I saw recently, which literally stopped me in my tracks. I was cutting through Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street in Manhattan when, at the glass-enclosed base of the Flat Iron building (called the "Prow"), there was an on-going exhibit.

 It was called Hypergraphia: The Cup Drawings

 The artist, Gwyneth Leech, transformed these used, blah coffee cups into...

 ...TADA! works of art

About 800 or so coffee cups with unique hand-drawn designs were hung on fishing string, making for a mesmerizing installation.

What was even cooler? The artist was there! Part of the experience was seeing her fully immersed in cup-drawing, even inviting passers-by to join her inside to draw on a cup or two.

Miss Leech, a painter by profession, began drawing on empty paper cups during meetings in 2007. She didn't have any sketchpads on hand, but she had a coffee cup. Why not?

To amass this collection, this is what she did: 

"I save the cups from the hot drinks I buy and occasionally collect them from other artists with whom I meet for tea or coffee around town. I wash and dry them and record on the bottom the date, place and occasion, as well as the drink that was consumed, thus capturing the social moment just passed."

She also invited people to bring their used cups to the art space, provided they were washed beforehand, no Styrofoam cups were accepted, and the bottom of the cup had to declare the name of the cup donor and the date the beverage was consumed (the cup now had some history!).

I wonder what information she found out and how she'd use them.

Here are a few of my favorites:

"I am a painter living in New York City, always on the lookout for the extraordinary ordinary," is how she describes herself. All I can say is, extraordinary work Miss Leech, truly extraordinary!

You may learn more about Miss Leech through her website, Facebook page and blog.