[J]on Norquist is a civil engineer by trade, but a desire to find a creative outlet—combined with a poorly engineered coffee carafe—led to a second career as an artist, and the development of a collection of coffee-splashed canvases.
“I had always wanted to dive into my creative side, but it was difficult to find time to develop a craft with four kids and my engineering career,” Norquist says.
One morning, an aptly placed coffee spill captured his attention. “I thought, ‘If I spread that out on paper, it would probably be an interesting visual effect,’” he says. Norquist began to collect spills over time, placing butcher paper on his kitchen counter and taping out geometric patterns with masking tape. “I liked the crazy lines of the spill with the hard lines of the rectangles.”
Paper wrinkled too much, so eventually Norquist began to capture the same combination of chaotic spill patterns and smooth geometric lines on canvas. He plugged away at his projects for years, creating pieces for the house, and giving them as gifts to friends. Last summer, Norquist started displaying his art in public and making it available for sale. Collections of work now hang in Tacoma’s Corina Bakery and Caffe Fiore in Seattle. coffeeoncanvas.com
—Ellie Bradley is Fresh Cup‘s editor.
