Coffee Communion

(Spring, 2019)

I’ve always believed that sharing coffee with someone is a form of “communion.” The word means “the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level.” or even just “an act or instance of sharing.” It stems from Latin communio, or mutual participation.

While these days, you may only hear the word used in reference to church or to the Eucharist, or to the Lord’s Supper, I believe it’s what we come to a coffeeshop to do when we bring others with us. We are communing. We are in shared participation. We are exchanging on a deeper mental and spiritual level at a coffeeshop—giving each other positive energy and encouragement, and sharing our disappointments and our concerns and our joys.

Coffeeshops, cafes, coffee houses— whatever they are called, are the hub of a community— and there’s that root word again— commune. It is our group, our family, our community, spending time together, relaxing and enjoying each other’s company.

In 2018, I did a series of portraits that are interchangeable. The original ones were portraits of friends having coffee that I could put in any order to show people having conversations. They were made to be switched around so that new interactions can happen. Just like a coffeeshop.

I also did this group of paintings to make a statement about how it was the coffee fellowship after a church service, where members catch up on each other's lives, share concerns, laugh, gossip, tell stories, that was the real “Communion” we are taught about. It’s the that looks and feels most like the original “last supper” where people were gathered around a table, eating, laughing, joking, sharing with each other over good food and drink. It’s where church members get to talk!

It does not have to have a religious connotation though. It is representative of anytime people come together to talk and share and be “in communion” with each other!

All are acrylic, meant to be interchangeable on a wall together, and you could hang them in any pattern to get new conversations out of them. There were originally fifteen, but I sell some and add new ones to the group, and it keeps getting bigger and more fun.