GALLERIES —
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
© 2004 Keith Halonen    oil on panel    34¼×21 in / 87×53 cm    $ 24,000 US
THIS PAINTING IS A GOLDEN RECTANGLE

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     Inspiration is certainly critical, but nearly as important is the fact that there's an entire coffee plantation out there with my name on it. This is my caffeine paraphernalia on parade. I thought about calling this something like Ellipses and Grid or some such hifalutin modern art monicker, but in the end my least favorite coffee mug won out. I acquired the namesake mug when I did a regular deadline humor column in a local magazine. My very favorite cup is right next to it. This cup appears in several of my paintings and some derivative digital works. The sugar bowl is an inheritance.

     The infusion brewer was a gift from a friend, payback for dogsitting and briefcase sitting. He really needed to get away from his work. That was almost 20 years ago. The grinder was a gift from my wife over 25 years ago. It has served four times the lifespan of an electric grinder I brought home from my chess club when it folded. That thing was so noisy! It worked well, though... too well! The grinding engine was so powerful that the coffee dust spurting from the outport literally sand-blasted holes in the side of its plastic basket! On its final run it misted coffee dust all the way across the kitchen! I was glad to see it go and happy to remount my archaic hand-grinder. It takes 70 revolutions to produce grounds enough for one cup. I can do that in about 20 seconds and it's much quieter. I earn my coffee.



Detail from TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
     This painting again follows my current thematic direction. In this case, the dynamic element is caffeine. Everything in the painting is about coffee, making it and drinking it. Especially pertinent is the cup after which the painting is named. If there is another beverage associated with the doing of business, it must be running a distant second to coffee. Coffee is the de facto business pick-me-up around the world.

     During the production work on this painting, I consumed approximately 175 cups of fine imported coffees.

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