I’ve really enjoyed this project because of the many ideas I’ve had before coming to some resolved work that I’m really pleased with. I began by simply researching coffee in the simplest way possible but I was unsure where to go from there because it didn’t feel like a personal project with can angle I could connect with. I was then told to think about what coffee meant to me that it didn’t mean to other people. This was when I remembered the film ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’ which showed short vignettes of the conversations shared by people while smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. Coffee is such a special drink to me purely because of it’s talent to bring people together and fuel an incredible range of conversations. I think this is a beautiful concept and is something that I think coffee and cigarettes have in common. Some of my most cherished memories are those when I’ve had both lovely and bizarre conversations over coffee and cigarettes. I’ve depicted some of these memories of conversations through illustrations paired with text drawn to look like smoke and steam. Music is also a very important thing in my life and I have a habit of making lots of small playlists full of songs that I can relate to lots of specific moments in my life so I thought I would include one that I made for this project as it really helped me to retreat back into my memories of some of my favourite conversations.

~ Gunga Din, The Libertines ~ Maybe Tomorrow, Stereophonics ~ Tender, Blur ~ Pedestal, Bombay Bicycle Club ~ Cigarettes and Coffee, Otis Reading ~ Once Around the Block, Badly Drawn Boy ~ Silent Sigh, Badly Drawn Boy ~ Sweet Disposition, Temper Trap ~ Flesh And Bone, Brendan Benson ~ Uptown Top Ranking, Althea And Donna ~ Vienna, Billy Joel ~ Swallowtail, Wolf Alice ~ Freazy, Wolf Alice ~ No Diggity, Chet Faker ~ What A Wonderful World, Louis Armstrong ~ Feeling Good, Nina Simone ~ Back To Black, Amy Winehouse ~ Life in Technicolor, Coldplay ~ Sinnerman, Nina Simone ~ Iguana Bird, Pete Yorn, Scarlet Johansson ~

During this project I’ve been thinking a lot about coffee and it’s place in my life and wider society. While doing this research, I remembered a short film I watched during the first lockdown last year called ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’ directed by Jim Jarmusch. It shows a series of short vignettes of famous personalities engaging in conversation whilst enjoying a coffee and a cigarette. While some people might find this kind of film boring, I thought it was fascinating to watch people interacting with each other and seeing that, famous or not, coffee is something that can be appreciated by everyone, regardless of class, background, race or gender. I’m fascinated by the conversations had over a cup of coffee as I think its an opportunity for any topic to be discussed so I’d like to create an artists book of illustrations depicting different conversations I overhear or have heard in the past between people having a coffee sharing a cigarette.

All images – screen caps from ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’.

I’ve chosen to research coffee for this project as it’s something that’s very much part of my daily routine and is an important thing to me. Not only is coffee something that features in my life everyday,  it is also something that I associate with my family and being with them.

I am interested in the part coffee plays in society, “how do you have your coffee?” is a common question to be asked and upon meeting a friend, old or new, “do you want to grab a coffee?” is an immediate response to polite introductory small talk. It is something that brings people together and I’d like to explore this through a series of illustrations and photographs.

Illustration of the ‘Coffee Belt’ of the world paired with coffee visual research.

Coffee percolator still lives.

Coffee pot still lives.

Still life and line drawing

Continuous line drawings

Coffee bean illustration

Coffee bean illustration

All coffee visual research

cof·fee /ˈkôfē,ˈkäfē/  noun  The berries harvested from species of Coffea plants.