Barista Coffee Art

Tulsa Baristas Show Off At Latte Art Competition

Posted: May 08, 2009 9:13 PM CDT Updated: May 09, 2009 7:50 AM CDT

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• Tulsa Baristas Show Off At Latte Art Competition

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The most serious artists take a frothy drink and spin it into a masterpiece.

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In seconds, an intricate design can bubble up as tantalizing to the eye as to the tastebuds.

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The baristas faced off, comparing rosettas, the signature latte art creation.

By Ashli Sims, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Artists usually don't challenge each other to throwdowns, but that's what some local artists did.

But their medium isn't oil on canvas. Some shops in Tulsa take their steam, milk and coffee pretty seriously.

The most serious take a frothy drink and spin it into a masterpiece.

"It's a sign that you are good at making coffee 'cause it's hard to make latte art," said Brian Franklin, owner of Double Shot Coffee Company. "If you get it too thick, it won't work. If you get it too thin, it won't work. So you know if you got latte art, it was the right consistency of milk."

In seconds, an intricate design can bubble up as tantalizing to the eye as to the tastebuds.

Franklin wanted to bring the latte art competitions he's seen in other cities to Tulsa.

"We're trying to create a community with the baristas here in town," Franklin said. "Other places we go there's a tight-knit barista community, and it builds the coffee industry in those towns. And we're trying to make that happen in Tulsa and get better coffee here."

So the baristas came from all over town, lining up to lay their latte skills on the line.

Double Shot even rigged a camera and a few monitors, so folks could watch in the shop and online, through U-Stream.

The baristas faced off head to head, or cup to cup, comparing rosettas, the signature latte art creation.

Judging is a bit informal, but with cash on the line and the contestants hopped up on caffeine, the competition can get fierce.

In the end, organizers hope self-expression through espresso will draw Tulsa's coffee community together and boost business, a cup at a time.

MY BUMBLE BEE With PAPER

There is a story between Transformers and me that I cannot but share with you.

When I was in Grade 4 in 1988, the Transformers appeared. It's no doubt a precious house to a child, especially in an age of entertainment-lacking. I'm lost and enjoying myself among the sounds of transforming, KUKUKAKA. I got accustomed to every characters and every events.
Every Saturday evening, watching Transforming program was the most precious time I was longing for during the week. I would like to buy everything regarding Transformers. It's a pity that only cheapest pasters I could afford. Each time I could stand for a long while to watch transformer toys before small booth.

Later, a classmate took a toy to school. Hasbro's Motormaster. It was said that it was very expensive, compared to other kinds of toys, for it was bought from Shanghai city.
Obviously, I would be no other than admiring and jealousness.

However, other toys cannot be mentioned in the same breath. Because its materials, style is far beyond to compare. Even I was shocked that the logo of Transformer could change its color, which is the clearest memory on my mind till now. I cannot believe that a transformer toy can be made in such an excellent level.

Chairman Mao had said that people can achieve everything he wants in case of his courage.
Later I got an idea to make one by myself.

At the very beginning, I collected boxes which were used to save pencil-lead for it could be easily reached and adhibitted, and its suitable shape, transparency. I tried to make one. It was a racing car or other kind of toy. I cannot remember it exactly. It’s not bad. Anyhow, it's a very important experience by which I become more confident. I have to choose other materials to make other toys, like Starscream, Grimlock, which have more arcs.

Then I turn to use other materials. This time I use ordinary paper. It happens that there are many shell-paper on hands.

Like any other hand-made activities, I image a picture body outspread, and then draw it on paper, and cut it down and paste it. Finally put all parts together. From which I get it more and more clear that thinking is prior to making.
To make a transformer, I have to learn it how to transform at first, and set it down every parts and every joints which will be used to transform. Taking all into consideration, and solve problems one by one, rather than focusing on a detailed one. Through many times trying, the Starscream comes into being completely. “Cool", the first word appears in my mind.(Thank Great Wall for translating )

Freezing Enthusiasm has been ignited again. People can be easily influenced, but something in one's heart cannot be changed. The first time I saw the foreshow of the transformer, I felt that my feeling comes back. The moment I enter into the cinema, I feel that my dream will soon come into true. According to familiar names, strange faces, classical actor's lines, and fashionable and brand-new Camoro, I exert myself to recall things in 1988. Something just appears and then dies away silently. People always touched by recalling. I'm touched and excited during watching film. It's time to do something to express my true feelings. For I know that I'm still passionate.


I’m idling at home for some days. Since the film show, I'm wondering to do something. Once in a shopping, I was attracted by egg-pie. The largely superficial yellow color looks like car painting. Later I pay more attention to yellow packaging paper, and then find a satisfied one. At that time, I think it might be useful when making my bee. No matter I enjoy it or not, I buy it only in the aim at collecting its packaging paper. (Some pictures was added later, for I did not take a camera before making it.)



Tools photo, totally prepare to make by hands. Compass is old and leaves one leg. Without any hesitation, it has been thrown into trash box. It’s a pity I cannot find my T square. Otherwise, it will look like a little bit more professional.



Bond photo



Do not look down upon snap fastener(button?maybe you have never seen it that was popular in China ten years ago) . All joints will depend on it.



Moon-cake box will be brought to play. It is strong enough to be used as framework.





Main material is white paperboard, both-sides. Other supplements are chopsticks, popsicle sticks, the core of ball-point pen, clew, plastic spring, etc.


All materials are prepared. That Searching data, sketching, is useful to understand the whole structure. The process is most important. All the reference pictures come from internet. Most of them are face-side and only one is back-side, and not clear. I have no way but use my mind to image. (Later I find a clear back-side picture, and find that some is wrongly made. It’s very regret that it has been pieced together. I only amend some parts. And let others alone.) After having studied the film edition bee thoroughly, I find that the procedure of transformation is very complicated, even some parts has taken place shape-changing. Whereupon, I give up the idea of shape-changing, and pay more attention to its mobility.




In July 15, I begin to make it. According to layout, the first part would be its head.
Then the head is here.



For its complex shape, the framework is absolutely necessarily. It's upper limbs. A little bit roughness.



It’s leg. They seem thin and weak. (Later it become no use for it cannot support its weight. And I have to re-design one.)



On July 21, some accessories have been made.



On July 25, the chest is molding. And some parts of the back



On July 28, arms complete.



On July 29, watching film again, to check its structure


On July 31, re-make the waist. combined with the chest, can be turned in three directions X, Y, Z. The arms most likely finished. (The back is under installing. Some parts are unknown.)


Aug. 2, Legs


Aug. 3, Legs complete, install.


Aug. 6, it is cruses. In order to support the most parts of its weight, chopsticks have been used.




Aug. 7, try the proportion. The bee has to lie down before the complete of cruses.



Aug. 8

Aug. 10, legs complete



assemble, the last part is the back

Aug. 11, Mission Accomplished



It eventually comes out. There are about more than 60 movable joints, 36 cm height. Using one AO paperboard, besides, I have to enjoy five all stra of KFC, together with two boxes of egg-pie, four bottle of Tai-zi milk. All what I want to express is in the BUMBLE BEE.This time, while making the model, I have no idea of keep designs. All I have done is draw directly on paper. So I am very sorry that there is no any desigins. But next time, I will note all the details as possible as I can. Special thanks to fatbaby.Thank Great Wall for translating .



To re-paste it, please note my blog address: http://wonderdasher.blog.sohu.com/

Harley Museum

Shifting gears at Harley museum
By RICK BARRETT
rbarrett@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 12, 2007

The 200-foot glass wall has been finished, and the first major construction phase of Harley-Davidson's museum has been completed.
91735Harley-Davidson Museum

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The company left two old "sand-hoppers" on the museum site, which were used for loading sand into trucks. They are orange, which is one of Harley-Davidson's primary colors.

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Photos/Harley-Davidson

Although an opening date for next year hasn't been announced, this rendering shows what the completed Harley-Davidson museum will look like.
What's in Store

The Harley-Davidson museum, scheduled to open next summer, will feature hundreds of motorcycles, including brightly colored Art Deco models from the 1930s.

There will be interactive exhibits that allow visitors to get the "feel" of a Harley.

Visitors also can expect to see displays that explain the "nuts and bolts" of Harley engines.
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In early 2008, the iconic motorcycle manufacturer will be setting up exhibits, and the museum remains on schedule for opening in the summer, Harley officials said Wednesday.

The three buildings have been fully enclosed, and work has begun on the interiors, said Harley spokeswoman Rebecca Bortner.

"We are at the point where the structure is pretty much complete," she said.

Expected to draw 350,000 visitors a year, the Harley museum at 6th and Canal streets will be one of Milwaukee's biggest tourist attractions, much like Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Atlanta's Coca-Cola Museum.

Harley's vast archives include motorcycles, clothing, photos, posters, promotional materials and magazines. There's one bike from each of Harley's 104 years, and there are Harley bicycles, snowmobiles and golf carts the company made years ago.

A customized Harley named King Kong also will be displayed. It's more than 13 feet long, weighs more than 1,000 pounds and has two Knucklehead engines. The bike's original owner, Felix Predko of Pennsylvania, spent more than 4,000 hours doing the customization.

For now, the museum's construction is center stage as hundreds of workers and contractors do a choreographed dance.

Companies from across the nation have been bidding for the right to install everything from steel beams to restroom partitions. Some contractors are motorcycle enthusiasts eager to etch their mark on the museum.

Harley produced a short video about one enthusiast, a bricklayer, who did the masonry work on one of the museum's walls.

A wall with Harley-Davidson written on it contains 20,887 bricks, including 4,700 bricks used for the lettering. Each brick was numbered, cut and placed in the wall by hand - by a Harley rider who put his heart and soul into it.

"We have seen a lot of enthusiasm like that," Bortner said.

Exposed steel, rivets and concrete are meant to reflect Milwaukee's and Harley's industrial heritage. The company purposely left two old, rusted "sand hoppers" on the 20-acre site that were used for loading sand into trucks. They are orange, which is one of Harley's primary colors.

The museum's raw look has created its own challenges, though, as contractors take precautions not to scratch or mar something that normally would be covered by drywall, carpet or paint.

Landscaping includes 700 recently planted trees and 5,000 bushes and native plants. The work was done in the fall so the trees and bushes would start growing in the spring.
Opens next year

The museum's opening date hasn't been revealed yet, though it will coincide with Harley's 105th anniversary celebration next summer.

Already, hundreds of people have asked about booking special events at the museum. Some of the requests have been for weddings.

"We have done a ton of publicity work in the motorcycle enthusiast community," Bortner said.

More than motorcycles, the museum is supposed to represent local culture. It has been called a showcase for the Menomonee Valley, an industrial area that was once an eyesore but has experienced extensive redevelopment.

Officials from Louisville, Ky., visited the Menomonee Valley to see how it might be a model for an industrial restoration in their city.

On Wednesday, Gov. Jim Doyle announced a $1.25 million brownfield grant to Harley that's supposed to help cover environmental remediation costs at the museum site.

Doyle estimates the museum will generate $78 million a year in area spending and $1.23 million a year in state and local taxes.

Amazing Artist

Check out this website:

http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/23115/strokes-of-genius

It has some cool pictures of the artist.

Strokes of Genius

Phil Hansen is not only tearing down the “gallery” walls that keep many people from seeing and enjoying art. He’s also showing us how it’s made -- all on the Internet.

By KEVIN SITES, FRI JUL 13, 11:51 AM PDT

Phil Hansen stubbornly adheres to one artistic cliche. He's willing to suffer for his art.

Asked to provide a photo for Yahoo! News, Phil Hansen couldn't resist creating a composite image.

Take the giant portrait he made of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as a protest against nuclear proliferation. He applied 6,000 adhesive bandages on a plywood backdrop. Then, using a quart-sized bag of his own blood, he painted Kim's face on the exposed gauze. His sister-in-law, a doctor, helped him draw the 500ml he needed.

Hansen shrugs off the experience.

"Five hundred cc's of blood seems like a lot, but it's just nothing," he says from the basement of his brother's house outside St. Paul, Minnesota, where he currently lives and makes his art. "I don't even have scars on my arms anymore from it."

It's not the suffering that really distinguishes Hansen's work (after all, it's hard to top Van Gogh) but his style and method for displaying it. Hansen eschews galleries, preferring to take his art directly to the eyeballs rather than bringing the eyeballs to the art — through the Internet.

An art school dropout, Hansen works as an X-ray technician by day, spending all of his spare time and money on his art. But his work, and his method of presenting it, has given him a huge audience.

His breakthrough piece was a time-lapse video of a two-day project called "Influences." He painted 30 pictures on his own chest, one over the other, with each picture representing an influence in his life. When he was done, he peeled the quarter-inch thick layer of paint from his skin and cut out a silhouette of his own profile. The video was streamed more than a million times on the Web — a cyber art phenomenon in which both process and final piece were revealed.

Hansen often uses the technique of pointillism, in which the canvas is dabbed with tiny bits of color, rather than fluid brush strokes, to create a larger image.

But he gives pointillism a modern twist. You might call it "kinetic fragmentism" — pointillism in motion.

For instance, Hansen completed an on-camera piece of paint-dipped karate chops to reveal a portrait of martial arts legend Bruce Lee.

Hansen's Ku Klux Klan piece aims to provoke questions about religion.

His works often have a political stance. Several years ago, Hansen devised an image of President George W. Bush by hand-painting the names of 1,700 coalition soldiers killed from the beginning of the Iraq War until April 2005.

"They're dying for George Bush," he explains. "They're dying for an idea that he had and unfortunately it wasn't a clear idea."

Covering the entire back wall of his brother's basement is a 7 x 14 foot mural of the Ku Klux Klan, made up from thousands of verses copied from the bible and individually cut out. It's a companion piece to an image of civil rights hero Rosa Parks — also made from bible verses.

Hansen says the idea was to show the far-reaching influences of religion for both evil and good.

Hansen's commitment to his own brand of pointillism is most evident in a portrait of the so-called Green River killer, Gary Ridgeway.

He made the piece by drawing one-inch portraits of each of Ridgeway's 48 female victims in various shades of light and dark. He then photocopied the drawings and cut them out into 12,000 tiny squares which he arranged, one by one, to reveal the killer's face.

Hansen says it's about remembering the victims — women all connected by the misfortune of having crossed paths with Ridgeway. The project took four months.

The detail work has taken its toll. Hansen holds up his right hand to show me a twitch he says he's had since high school, when he was first introduced to pointillism and became obsessed with it.

Hansen created his self-portrait 'A Moment' over the course of six days, oven sitting cross-legged for up to 12 hours straight.

His latest project used the Internet to connect his viewers to the art being created. He created a ten-foot, spinning, circular canvas in his brother's garage, then moved in there himself. Taking a week off work, he spent six days straight living in front of his web cam, sleeping on the floor, eating takeout and encouraging people to call him or email him with a "moment" that changed their lives.

"I'm really interested in how all of our experiences build together to create whatever world we live in," he said before starting the project.

He got over 600 responses. People from all over the world, from the United Kingdom to Romania to Botswana, told him their personal moments: their first time acting on stage; the death of a parent without being about to say goodbye; seeing the rainforest destroyed.

Starting from the center of the canvas, Hansen then painted their words, working out to the edges until the image they had collectively created was a face — Hansen's own — bordered by four hands.

"There's always someone or something, maybe even ourselves, supporting us," Hansen tells me by phone, shortly after completing the piece. "But at the same time there is some experience... trying to push us down. And somehow, as we move through life, most people end up kind of staying in the center, in the middle through that experience."

Strangely, Hansen says the jitter in his hand that has plagued him for so many years went away while he was making the piece.

-See more of Hansen's work at his Web site.

Deadly Obituary

Jörg Immendorff, who died on Monday aged 61, was Germany's best-known and most provocative artist, a close friend of the former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and, in 2003, the central figure in a sex scandal involving prostitutes and cocaine-fuelled orgies at a luxury hotel.

In what became known as the Orgy of the Year, Immendorff was discovered naked having his nipples licked by a retinue of seven young filles de joie, while 11 grams of cocaine lay ready for consumption on a Versace ashtray nearby.

Notwithstanding his exotic private life - he had also been a luminary of Dusseldorf's sadomasochistic scene - Immendorff was regarded by many critics as an original and vigorous artist of great complexity.
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His early work in the 1960s reflected the political upheavals of the times, but he later emerged as one of the leading figures of the new German Expressionism.

In 2005 Immendorff's work was hung at the Saatchi Gallery in London as part of an exhibition - The Triumph of Painting - that ranked among the top five British shows of that year. Charles Saatchi was a long-standing and enthusiastic collector of Immendorff's paintings.

After coming to prominence as a member of the German art movement Jungen Wilden (the Young Wild Ones), Immendorff became a figure of national acclaim, whose pictures sold for more than £100,000 apiece. His best-known work includes the Café Deutschland series of 16 large paintings in which he addressed the conflict between East and West Germany.

His huge colourful canvases, depicting fictitious settings such as discothèques and cafés, were heavily laden with political iconography and imagery. "In my paintings, symbols associated with National Socialist Germany function as kinds of clichés in so far as they stand for universal evils," he explained in 2003.

"The factors that led to [Hitler's] rise to power and the destruction he subsequently wrought remain permanent dangers. Such images must be painted. To make them taboo would be regressive.

"The smoking swastika indicates that the matter is far from closed, be it in Germany or the malicious terrorism emanating from the Middle East. Evil takes root and flourishes when art and freedom of expression are censored."

Last January Immendorff ran into heavy critical flak for his official retirement portrait of his friend, the outgoing German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, which was completed on the ailing artist's instructions by his students.

The result was an odd icon-like image painted in gold, with a melting black eagle, symbol of the German state, in the foreground. Also in the picture is Immendorff himself, represented as a broken man, a reference to his increasing physical frailty.

"There are statues of Elvis Presley that look like this," sneered one critic. "Siberian oligarchs and Californian rappers have a need - alongside their collection of Rolex watches - to immortalise themselves in this manner."

Schroeder had apparently given the commission to Immendorff as a way of letting the painter atone for his public humiliation in August 2003.

Caught in a £1,100-a-night suite at the Steigenberger Park Hotel, Dusseldorf, with seven naked young call-girls and several lines of cocaine, Immendorff was being hustled away by police while still more prostitutes were arriving.

As well as the drugs found on the scene, a further 10 grams of cocaine were found at Immendorff's atelier nearby.

At his trial the following year, Immendorff admitted cocaine possession, and having organised 27 similar orgies between February 2001 and the date of his arrest. In the light of his confession and his terminal illness, he was put on probation and heavily fined.

Jörg Immendorff was born on June 14 1945 near Lüneberg, the Saxon town twinned with Scunthorpe where Himmler committed suicide. Immendorff studied in Dusseldorf under Joseph Beuys, the influential modern artist whose principal media were animal fat and felt, before being expelled for Maoist activism.

Immendorff rejected traditional painting in 1966 by scrawling the words "Stop Painting" across one of his pictures, and made the natural progression into the art establishment, spending 12 years teaching and later holding guest professorships all over Europe.

He also created stage designs, including some for the Salzburg Festival, exhibited as a sculptor, owned a sex bar near the Reeperbahn in Hamburg's red-light district, and helped to design André Heller's avant-garde amusement park Luna Luna in 1987.

In 1996 Immendorff became a professor at the art academy in Dusseldorf from which he had been dismissed as a student in the 1960s. The following year he was awarded the richest art prize in the world, from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey, Mexico.

His sculptures include a large bronze of the German film star Hans Albers and a spectacular piece of iron, 25 metres high, in the shape of an oak tree trunk, erected at Riesa, near Dresden, in 1999. Although named "Elbquelle" by Immendorff himself, locals know it as "Rostige Eiche" ("rusty oak").

In 1998 he was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. When he could no longer paint with his left hand, he switched to the right.

For the last year, unable to hold a paintbrush, he had been confined to a wheelchair and directed his assistants to paint by following his instructions.

Jörg Immendorff married, in 2000, Oda Jaune, a former student more than 30 years his junior; their daughter was born the following year. Both survive him.

MS and Inigo Mantoya

Mandy Patinkin participated in a 75 to 150 mile bike ride for charity to support the National Multiple Sclerosis Society with cast mates from Criminal Minds, including Thomas Gibson & Shermar Moore! Go CM team! "Mandy likes to convince you that he's an old geezer. He's not." - Moore
Thanks to everyone, especially you, Graham, for putting their hearts, money, and bodies on the line for this cause!

That's Right Folks...

What Can I Do With a Liberal Arts Degree?


By Mary Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com

Perhaps the most persistent -- and often most annoying -- question college students hear throughout their years (second only to "What's your major?") is "So what are you going to do with your major?"

The truth, for many of them, is that they simply don't know. And that is totally OK.

While choosing a major will help you prepare for a career in a specific field, it can also provide a solid basis for pursuing a career in a seemingly dissimilar field. For example, history majors can go into government, journalism or even museum work, and it's not unusual for theater majors to work in business.

Before you think about what you're going to do with your major, find out what you can you do with your major.

Art:
So daddy wasn't thrilled when you announced that you were switching from pre-med to art history, eh? "At least I'll be rich in spirit," you offer as the smallest hints of tears replace the dollar signs in his eyes.

But art majors aren't necessarily destined to be starving artists. You can go into any number of fields, ranging from commercial art, media and photography to art therapy. If you've still got a place in your heart for scrubs, supplement your studies with psychology or counseling courses to pursue art therapy. If commercial art appeals to you, intern with a photographer, magazine or other media outlet and compile a portfolio as you go along. The same goes for studio art, wherein interning or volunteering for a museum will help you see the administrative side of this field.

Biological Sciences:
Lest you shy away from concentrating on the biological sciences (biology, microbiology, zoology, etc.) because you don't want to go to grad school, know that there are plenty of career options for those with bachelor's degrees in biology. Not only does an undergraduate degree prepare you for a career in the rapidly-growing healthcare industry, it also qualifies you to work as a laboratory assistant, technician, technologist or research assistant.

Should you feel the need to break out of the lab, you could also do non-technical work like writing, illustration, sales, photography and legislation by signing up for relevant electives, doing part-time work or interning.

Psychology:
Yet another major that seems to ensure that, unless you have a graduate degree, you'll be reduced to spouting Freud to the patrons you serve at the local café after graduation.

Not so. Psychology provides a strong liberal arts background, allowing graduates to pursue work in several fields like public relations, retail management, sales, market research, advertising and education. Again, it's important to pursue outside interests in different fields, both to further your work experience and make contacts.

English:
Majoring in English isn't just for future teachers anymore. Those with a background in English have a variety of options when it comes to choosing their fields of work, including law, public relations, advertising, publishing and well, okay, teaching. English majors looking to work in law should obtain summer work at law firms and tweak their speech and debate skills. Picking up an LSAT prep book probably wouldn't hurt, either.

Foreign Language:
Yes, you've taught all of your friends dirty words in three different languages, but what else can you do? Well, a lot, actually.

For one thing, the government (including the FBI, CIA, Customs Service and the Library of Congress) is one of the largest employers of people with foreign language skills. Foreign language majors can also go into arts and entertainment by working at museums, book publishers and film companies, or into commerce and work at American firms abroad or international firms in the U.S.

Travel, tourism, service and education are also popular industries for foreign language graduates. Try to become as accustomed to the culture of the language(s) you're studying as possible, in any way possible, from studying or working abroad to renting foreign language movies and books.

Political Science:
So you want to go into politics, but you're neither an Austrian bodybuilder/movie star nor a former professional wrestler... that's probably okay. In fact, some might say a more typical approach would be to supplement that political science major with participation in student government, a model United Nations or local political campaigns if they hope to go into government, law or politics.

Other career options include journalism, non-profit work, business, broadcasting or education. A degree in political science can also be good preparation for post-graduate studies in psychology, law and business.

Whatever your major, keep your options open by volunteering, interning, doing part-time work or taking classes in other areas that interest you. Involve yourself in community events and get to know local professionals who can give you contacts, advice and references.

And the next time someone hassles you about what you're going to do with your major, resist the urge to tell that person where you'd like to stick it; instead, say with every confidence that you have a variety of options to pursue, but you don't want to narrow them down quite yet.

Copyright 2007 CareerBuilder.com. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without prior written authority.