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The rich and caffeinated aroma of Rachel Heusner's art

If you love coffee as well as art, then the following story will be double shot of caffeine for your palate. The Art Gallery and Coffee Shop at the corner of Princess Margaret and Coney Drive in Belize City is the venue for an exhibition opening right now called the Coffee Collection. The Coffee Collection is artfully brewed by Rachael Heusner. Heusner recently returned from her adopted home in Trinidad to share her latest water color paintings which she hopes you will sip and enjoy with a hot cup of java.

Rachael Heusner, Artist
"What we have opening this evening is an exhibition called the Coffee Collection and it's pieces that I have done using coffee as my medium. I started maybe about a year and a half ago and I’ve done a couple shows in Trinidad. The first one was with a bunch of friends; we called it Espresso from espresso coffee. We did coffee themes and so on and I used coffee as my medium and people have loved it. I think it is something that I needed to introduce to the Belizean counterparts."

Jose Sanchez
"Coffee, how does someone think of coffee as a medium? How does it work? Where was the thought given birth?"

Rachel Heusner
"Well, actually the thought came into play right here. First of all, I love coffee. I was drinking coffee and many times your painting and rather than dipping your paintbrush in the paint, it goes in the coffee but it creates a beautiful stain. And besides that, here we always have leftover coffee and I was like how can I use this, how can I recycle. It just blossomed out of that and I live it and they say the aroma of coffee alone is known to reduce stress so you can imagine painting is a wonderful media for me and the smell just enhances the whole experience."

Jose Sanchez
"Your themes, they seem very serene what are your topics"

Rachel Heusner
"Well, the ones on this side, they’re a little bit more serene but I think the ones behind you they tend to deal with children and movement and things that are natural to life; things that kids do that creates an excitement."

Jose Sanchez
Okay, but visually are we seeing Belize, are we seeing Tobago or sceneries that we can see in both countries?"

Rachel Heusner
"Yes, I always try to produce pieces that I think would be genetic to the Caribbean. So we grow up with kids doing a handstand; that could be anywhere in the Caribbean. It could be in other countries too but we know that we grew up seeing that. Some coffees do give you a nicer and richer tone."

Jose Sanchez
"And taste?"

Rachel Heusner
"And taste."

Heusner's Coffee Collection show ends on the twenty ninth of August.

Channel 5 Belize