An artist paints scenes of Java Land using a strong brew, his medium of choice

By Jack Broom
Seattle Times staff reporter

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES For Seattle artist Edward Kranz, aka Ezju, the goal in painting with coffee is "to connect the medium to the subject matter," telling stories about coffee hangouts. Above, he is seen next to some of his coffee paintings in his Sodo studio.

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Like a lot of fun ideas, this one started out as a joke.

Edward Kranz — who prefers to go by the single name "Ezju" — was having a "bitchfest" with a buddy at a coffeehouse last year. They were bemoaning their lives as telephone-listing sales reps and talking about what they really wanted to do.

The friend wanted to become a nurse. Ezju, 36, wanted to follow his interest in art — to paint, to have a studio and a gallery.

"When I mentioned art, he said he couldn't even draw a stick figure, but at the end of the conversation, he had spilled coffee on his napkin, and he held it up and goes, 'Look, I'm a modern artist.' "

On a whim, Ezju went home and made a similar coffee ring on a small canvas, adding a few drops for effect. He put an inexpensive frame on it and gave it to his friend. It was no big deal at the time.

But a couple of months later, after he'd worked up the nerve to quit his job, he decided to get more serious about painting with coffee. And now he's completed eight paintings in his "Coffee Culture" series of scenes in and around coffeehouses.

"I boil the coffee down until it's really, really thick. Eight to 10 pots will yield two or three ounces of paint," he said.

Coffee paintings on the Web www.nosuchanimal.net Seattle artist Ezju www.aldhaher.net Seattle artist Sabah Al-Dhaher

He uses French roast for a rich, dark color, but he varies his brands: Starbucks for a sidewalk trio; Tully's for the hands of a barista at work and Whidbey's for a drive-up espresso stand.

His work has been displayed in several coffeehouses and cafes around Seattle and an art gallery on Whidbey Island.

So how far can one go, using coffee as paint? Can we expect a Mocha Lisa? The Last Sipper? Perhaps a Starry Starbucks Night?

	EDWARD KRANZ (EZJU) "Open Mic Night at the Cafe." Ezju uses French roast from different brands for a rich, dark color.

Ezju makes no bones (or beans) about the fact that he'd like to make money off his project. And he would like to travel to Guatemala and Colombia to track coffee from bean to cup, putting it all together in an illustrated (what else?) coffee-table book.

In the meantime, though, he's keeping his new day job, driving box lunches around town for a catering company and serving at a couple of catered events a month

About that name, Ezju. It's his customized spelling of the Polish equivalent of Edward. That's what he was called by his Polish-German adoptive father, who died three years ago.

The two men traveled together for more than a decade, working on hotel-renovation jobs under the name "No Such Animal Contractors," a name Ezju has assigned to the small studio he rents near Safeco Field.

	EDWARD KRANZ (EZJU) "A Couple of Joes"

Ezju knows he's not the first person to use coffee as a paint pigment. A quick Web exploration turns up several artists who've produced sepia-toned works colored with coffee.

Among them is another Seattle artist, Sabah Al-Dhaher, who teaches stone carving at the Pratt Fine Arts Center. Al-Dhaher, 37, said coffee is often used in calligraphy in his native Iraq. He combined it with colored ink in street scenes and portraits shown on his Web site, www.aldhaher.net.

For Ezju, the goal in painting with coffee is "to connect the medium to the subject matter." In other words, coffee paintings telling coffee stories. He is now embarking on a series of paintings showing coffee-roasters at work.

"Seattle considers itself the coffee capital of the world, and maybe it is," said Ezju, a transplanted Pennsylvanian. "But it's definitely not the first. There have been revolutions planned in coffeehouses, inventions, artwork, poetry all this stuff."

The medium has its challenges. Using a fine grind, Ezju brews coffee by the pot in his home coffeemaker. He dumps the brewed coffee in a large kettle on the stovetop, boiling it down to a thick paste.

"I burned the first couple of batches, and it got all stringy and icky," he said. So now he heats it more slowly, a process that takes about three hours.

Next comes the question of what to put it on. He painted on a smooth clayboard, but the slickness of the surface was a problem.

	EDWARD KRANZ (EZJU) "Espresso Stand," painted with Whidbey's French Roast on textured clayboard, a surface that holds coffee in place well.

"I would paint on it, and then the next day I would go back to work an area, and it would lift all the coffee and move it. It drove me nuts."

He then tried a textured clayboard, which holds the coffee in place better. He also tried canvas but noted that when the canvas flexes, the coat of coffee can crack. Paper, mounted on wood to keep it from flexing, worked for a couple of paintings.

Drying time remained an issue. If the coffee is not completely dried, it can start to mold, particularly in the darkest areas, where the coffee paste is thickest.

	"Barista With Syrup Bottles," painted with Starbucks French Roast. Artist Ezju experiments with surfaces and techniques.

"The guitar player's hand took the better part of a month to dry," he said, gesturing at one painting. Once a painting is dry, he hits it with a heat gun and then sprays an acrylic coating over it.

Lately, he's been experimenting with a technique called encaustics, in which the coffee is mixed into a melted wax before it's applied.

A painting made with coffee may not last forever, but the same can be said for many substances artists experimen with, said Nicholas Dorman, chief conservator of the Seattle Art Museum.

Dorman, though not familiar with Ezju's work, said for the past few decades, artists have incorporated an ever-widening range of materials in their work.

"There are people who have used anything from fat to butter to chocolate — to dead flies," he said. "Anything goes."

Jack Broom: 206-464-2222 or jbroom@seattletimes.com.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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