If you’re a longtime Whole Latte Love customer, you might be familiar with Lauren Salzman. She’s one of our owners and co-founders, and still active behind the scenes. You might also know then that she’s a prolific artist who is responsible for all of the artwork on our original line of Whole Latte Love coffees.
$18.99
Needless to say, we were ecstatic when we had the opportunity to add more of her art to our catalog. In case you missed it, we recently launched 1lb gift tins of Maromas Orphea Whole Bean Coffee featuring “Coffee Dance”, a piece of original art painted by Salzman.
If you love Orphea like we do, there’s no reason not to pick up a tin yourself. But best of all, when the coffee’s gone you’re left with a chic and reusable tin that’s made 100% in Italy, including both the assembly and the raw materials. The tin itself is the result of a collaboration between ourselves and our friends at Maromas, and the first of what we hope to be many new works of art available from Lauren available on Whole Latte Love.
To learn a bit more about the tin and her artistic process, we were lucky enough to get an interview with Salzman that we’ve transcribed below:
Q&A with Lauren Salzman
Q: How did the coffee art tins come to be? Can you tell us a bit about the collaboration with Maromas?
A: Maromas Coffee contacted me and asked if they could use one of my coffee paintings on a coffee tin that they were producing that would include their coffee. Of course I was thrilled to be a part of their project.
Q: Your artwork also appears on a number of Whole Latte Love coffees, can you talk a bit about your process when creating art for products?
A: Actually all of the artwork that is on Whole Latte Love coffee were paintings that I did just from my own inspiration. My life is filled with coffee every day and the way my brain works, there are images that are always floating around in my mind that just must come out.
Q: Apart from coffee related art, what types of things do you enjoy painting?
A: I love painting images that just come to me. For instance in Venice you would think that I would latch on to the idea of painting the imagery like gondolas etc. But I saw these antique old watch faces at a flea market and this “image of time” just grabbed me and I had to have them. This painting is yet to come.
Q: Where do you draw inspiration from? Have your life experiences impacted your work?
A: The way an artist works is that every day, with every image there is this creative electricity that just sets off our brains. I think nature is a huge part of where I pull my creativity, a simple flower, clouds, rolling landscape, and definitely people and the circumstances that we live in. For instance, at the beginning of COVID I just had to paint a mandala full of color.
Q: What is your favorite medium to work with?
A: I have two opposite mediums that I love to work with, watercolor and oil on paper.
Q: Are there any artists who have had an influence on your style?
A: Georgia O’Keefe is a huge influence. I love her artwork, she was ahead of her time being a woman artist where men were mostly only celebrated and shown. I try to go to Ghost Ranch where she painted every two years. I understand why she loved it there. The landscape is phenomenal and there is just something so spiritual about that place.
Q: Are there any pieces you’re working on now that you’re excited about?
A: I am planning on doing a more abstract piece from my mind series soon. I am working on a portrait now for a friend in Italy.
Q: Can we expect to see more of your work represented on Whole Latte Love in the future?
A: Yes, I have many coffee inspired paintings that I am planning on creating prints to sell on our site.
