Coffee art part 3: Newport Beach man creates art out of illegal materials

As of April, 2009, restaurants in Newport Beach, California were no longer allowed serve food in or use containers made of Styrofoam. Luckily for artist Cheeming Boey, the City Council didn’t say anything about drawing on it. 

Boey, 31, uses Sharpies on coffee cups, but unlike Starbucks baristas, he's more concerned with what's on the cup rather than what's inside. "The Great Wave" (left) and "Ponder," (below right) are examples of his unique vision, a vision he hopes reaches beyond the mundane material he chooses to draw on.

Although Sharpies come in over 40 colors, Boey prefers basic black which makes a clean graphic look he likes.

"It was a motto I wanted to live by, black and white, as far away from lies, or grey areas," Boey says. "For that matter, my graphic journal / blog is also black and white and I talk about everything that comes to mind. There is a reason I don’t draw frames around the “comics” too. It is because I don’t want to feel like I am living inside a box.”

Speaking of being boxed in, he finds taking commissions limiting. It's a fine line between expressing your creativity and trying to meet the client’s expectations and preconceived ideas. And yet, if Howard Schultz, CEO and founder of Starbucks, asked for a cup, Boey would do it. I asked, "For how much?" Boey replied, "I would charge him however much I charge others for the cups. There is no caste system here. Just because hes the CEO doesn’t mean he gets treated differently. It doesn’t mean I have to milk it." So Howie could get a Boey original for between $100 - $200.

Here is a video of Boey in action. You'll see he does little or no pre-sketching ahead of time. What you see is the “first and final drawing,” he says. 

When asked if there are some cups he can't part with, he replied, "Yes. Mostly because they are either the first few ones I did, or I have invested a lot of emotion in them. Some I can't part with because I have spent months on them," like "Red Kimono," (right) which took three months to complete.

If you're ever at the Border's Seattle's Best at the District in Irvine, you may see him there drawing. His work can also be viewed (and purchased) the first Thursday of every month at the Marion Meyer Contemporary Art Gallery.

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If you liked this article, you might also enjoy: 
Coffee art part 1: Recreating the Mona Lisa one cup of coffee at a time
Coffee art part 2: Girl with a pearl earring and a cup of joe
Coffee 101: What is latte art?

Sources: Op Ed News, City of Newport Beach Newsletter, November 17, 2009. All photos used with Boey's permission.

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