PROJECT
A Saturday Coffeecat
Galina Pankrats
Radio host,
Blagoveshchensk (Russia)
My first coffeecat seemed to be a
simple coffee blur with the eyes made of
coffee beans. That was exactly what my
creative project "Saturday Coffeecat"
started with. For nearly two years, every
Saturday, I make a cup of coffee with baked
milk for myself, and make the instant coffee of
various levels of saturation in separate little
bowls. Then I am arming myself with the
watercolor brushes and, chewing marmalade
and washing it down with coffee, I let my
imagination run wild. Yes, yes, coffee instead
of watercolor! And always on Saturday. That's
the whole secret.
For the couple of years that the project
has been existing, there was hardly any of
Saturdays that I spent without creating a new
coffeecat. Some of them I created early in the
morning, when the whole family was still
asleep. The others – closer to the dinnertime
or in the evening, when most of the household
chores were already done and the heart
wanted to create. There are also some of the
coffeecats among them that I created in the
deep of the Saturday night, almost on Sunday,
I would say.
Some of the coffeecats were created in
a homely atmosphere. Some of them I created
“in the wild” – in a summer home or during a
hike. There is a coffeecat that “showed up” in
a car trip, and the one – abroad.
Each of them has its own personality,
since I remember what mood I was in while
creating each of them! Some – with ease and
enthusiasm. Some – with a heavy stone in my
gut. Many of them were created when I was in
a good mood, and some saved me from sad
thinking.
What does this project mean to me? For
now, it has already become an immutable
tradition and even responsibility in some way –
my Instagram followers wait for my Saturday
coffeecats; many admit that Saturday is
strongly associated with my coffeecats in
their minds. And I myself can't already imagine
my Saturday without a coffeecat. The
happiest of them already live with their own
lives in the homes of people, that are
important to me or of those who I consider to
be complete strangers, the others, the lucky
ones, found themselves in the calendars, and
have been bringing joy to my friends,
colleagues and acquaintances during the
whole year.
36
SUNRISE
But the most pleasant thing is that my
children are glad to support me as well – on
the Saturdays that I'm totally drained or have
no time to do arts, the children's coffeecats
come into the world! And that is so sweet!
How many coffeecats have I already
created so far? I can't answer this question,
since, as I`ve already mentioned, many
coffeecats live their own lives within the
places that are out of my sketchbook.
However, I can definitely say that the total
number of them is more than a hundred! Can
you imagine the amount of coffee I've already
used for drawing instead of drinking it with a
marshmallow! But it was worth it!
And actually, there is nothing unusual in
the “Saturday Coffeecat” project – the
ordinary drawings of ordinary cats, the only
thing is that I use the most ordinary coffee to
draw it, instead of watercolor… And, on
Saturdays only, of course!
February 2019 №2