I decided that I wanted to express my inner demons as artwork. I've seen some other artists do that. There is a perception that if you can identify your demons, you can conquer them.
Most of my demons, I think, aren't violent or macabre. They're dull by Hollywood standards, but they do persevere. One in particular is my addiction to caffeine.
Nearly everybody I know loves their caffeine. Some of my friends have elaborate daily rituals involving their morning cup of brew. I used to take large doses of the stuff, but I've had to stop. Caffeine encourages kidney stones in my system, and I don't like kidney stones at all.
So, around ten years ago, I quit caffeine cold turkey. No more cola, chocolate, tea, or coffee. After suffering the symptoms of withdrawal, I was left with a powerful and near constant craving for the stuff that I feel every day. Sometimes, with friends, I will enjoy a Coke or some tea, but even that will keep me up half the night.
My original intent was to imitate the brilliant Art Nouveau poster art of bohemian Paris in the early 1900's. If you wanted a beautiful artwork that depicted the vices of the period, you looked no farther than Pigalle. Think of de Toulouse-Lautrec.
I chose a French and German text for "Mistress Caffeine": French to represent the bohemian mentality and German on account that kaffein was first isolated by a German chemist, Friedlieb Runge in 1820. Of course, the effects of caffeine were well known since ancient times.
The image contains many representations of caffeine in my life. The pretty girl idealizes the allure of caffeine. She wears a pure white dress that mimics the colour of isolated caffeine. The bottom of her dress represents the flower of the coffee bean. She is entwined with blossoms, ripening beans, and leaves from a coffee plant (although coffee grows on trees, and not vines). She holds a cup of coffee with a picture of an overstimulated brain. The bi-lobed brain has a similar shape to the coffee bean, which forms a stream in the background. Did you know that the coffee bean is the world's second most traded commodity, after oil? The steam rising from the cup mimics the shapes of Earth's continents.
Zombie-like hands reach for the coffee. Maybe once they get their caffiene fix, they will be more human. I know a lot of people who are like that. de Toulouse-Lautrec used grasping hands in some of his poster work. I though they might add another level of dynamism to my composition.
I hope JSVB readers enjoy this piece. It was surprisingly difficult and time-consuming to put together. It drained me to bring this personal demon into concept form. The end result is this full poster-sized print. I've had to shrink the image quite a lot to make it fit into JSVB.
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