Having a vitamin D and a caffeine shot in Madrid (ES).
A stopover in the birth town of the world’s greatest liar Riga (LV) and eventually visiting Toruń one of the seven wonders of (PL).
Dead, flesh and hyper-realistic.
These contemporary paintings can fascinate me.
New to me but not to the world!
Or how did you get started?
I always knew that I wanted to go in an artistic direction, I made the choice for painting when I went to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.
Up close, your paintings are not as "finely painted" as first thought - and seen from far?
A work must be fascinating from ten meters, but also from ten centimeters away.
When you take a closer look, the image falls apart in different marks and brushstrokes; from a distance, the paintings seem more photo-realistic.
Randomly, or do a lot of pre-studies precede it?
Explain your workflow a little bit if you have one.
I will compose and photograph these.
I process the photographic material with an image editing program, make different prints and already research the direction of the colors in my head.
After determining the correct format, a monotone underpainting is made on the canvas.
When it is dry, the actual painting begins.
Memento Mori versus Carpe Diem.
Can you tell us a bit more about this?
Are there any places you can recommend to visit?
Further on your way towards the station, you can find the Groen Kwartier, a traffic-free neighborhood with a mix of a residential area with new and historic buildings, a couple of shops, top and more budget restaurants and also an urban farm on the rooftops.
If you are looking for a vitamin D or a caffeine shot, we recommend you come here.
Not only green oases in abandoned railway stations but there are surprises around every corner, like Randall coffee
(as I was interested in starting up something) and the experience of the author starting off in business where he micro-roasted coffee helped me discover the specialty coffee scene in the US, northern Europe and the UK, where I’m from originally.
Also on a more profound note, it has made me able to earn a living on my own terms and with something I enjoy being part of.
Can you recommend some places in Madrid where we can find them?
Scuba diving, snowboarding or hardcore/punk shows were a bit more of my wild kid-less days!
A bear reaching for a strawberry tree.
Do you think this has something to do with your super delicious coffee? :-)
No sh*t Sherlock they don't lie, even though
the world's greatest liar - Hieronymus Karl Friedrich Freiherr von Münchhausen was born here.
I would have liked to meet him in real life!
But we are here for the black gold of Kalve coffee from Riga.
I used to drink cheap coffee during my university studies when I was living in the dormitory.
Until then I never drank it at all.
For a long time, I drank coffee out of habit and never enjoyed the taste of it.
That kept going for years until I finally visited a proper coffee shop and had a latte - which opened my eyes to what coffee can taste like.
Since then it’s been more than love, it’s been like a healthy obsession.
It only took one sip of a really well-made drink.
We work with heat transfer, densities, solubility, physical changes within the beans and so on, and we apply know-how to make sure we do it right.
However, there is art in that as well - it turns out that coffee that is roasted beautifully, with steady, stable roast curves and directional lines that are smooth, and not hectic, ends up being delicious as well.
And each coffee needs an individual approach, with individual profiles.
So there is beauty in practicality.
Usually in the mornings, unless the coffee is really bad, I don’t even notice what I’m drinking.
But when I work with coffee, I take a completely different approach.
Then coffee for me is like a galaxy - untapped potential, unexplored opportunities and infinite elements waiting to be found by growing, sourcing, roasting and cupping.
If it’s a coffee you want to savor - vacuum pack it in small single batch doses and put it in the freezer, take them out only before prep and brew immediately.
But what should we really come here for?
We may only have a few grand monuments or buildings to see, but the beauty of our country hides in every nook and cranny.
Explore outside of the city, as we are a people of nature - and we do our best to nourish and preserve it.
We have an ancient culture that hides beyond the borders of the capital, and we encourage everyone to explore it.
"All of us, people of the world, are much more similar than we are different.
So let’s appreciate each other for our similarities and respect each other for our differences."
And famous for their gingerbread!
It is also called Little Kraków.
What is also great about this city: it is full of murals.
Combine this with coffee from Napar and your day becomes a perfect one!
One year of existence, one lockdown and many, many calls with Bartek (our humble master roaster) later the idea of a coffee roastery started to emerge.
After many difficult cuppings, coffee roaster setups, roasting curve profiling, design and supply chain battles in January 2022 roastery had its debut.
The rest is history, as they say.
But we believe it’s very important to have our artistic tools in check, so we can express our art the way we would love to :)
Are there many events organized here?
One can find a few in between streets of Old Town (f.e. Super Mario-themed graffiti).
There are many blocks of flats, whose walls are covered in murals.
Mostly they are local themed murals (historical figures, ecology, astronomy, architecture of Toruń), or lifestyle (cycling, partying, street life).
Creative and caring about great customer experience.
Design, style, music, passion, expression, emotions, and sooo many others are both part of coffee culture and art. And the most important link between both is a human being, that bridges, creates and enjoys both worlds, that are constantly overlapping.
And don’t forget about latte art ofc ;)
"Eat your vitamins, remember to call your mom, support your local caffeine dealers and be gentle to other beings :)"