New York Coffee Cup Planter With Pink Cyclamen Maximalist Fauvist Original Painting

Description

This 6x8 painting is part of a series of four I painted exploring a sweet fuchsia pink cyclamen plant that … more This 6x8 painting is part of a series of four I painted exploring a sweet fuchsia pink cyclamen plant that bloomed rather suddenly. The bright magenta petals and patterned green leaves stand out, luminous, against a dark blue and black background. In this little jewel-toned painting, the cyclamen plant rests in a planter designed in the manner of the classic New York Coffee Cup.
New York was where I first arrived in America as a new immigrant and I am at least a little bit obsessed with these cups as they layer the immigrant stories that seem to so characterize New York City itself. While looking up the stories behind them, I found the following fascinating story on https://nycoffeecup.com/pages/fun-facts
"The Anthora was the first of its kind, introducing the to-go coffee cup as we know it, the first handleless paper to-go coffee cup, innovating a basic design that nearly all coffee shops have come to use since. New Yorkers needed coffee, and the Greek diner or deli was where they were getting it. As the first disposable cup without obtrusive handles, it was a matter of convenience for a population known for being on the go.
When Greek immigrants arrived in New York in the early part of the last century, they brought their coffee culture along with them, giving birth to the city’s ubiquitous Greek diners and sidewalk pushcarts. In 1963, the Sherri Cup Company set out to produce a to-go coffee cup that would appeal to the Greek vendors. For decades afterwards, hundreds of millions of the cups were manufactured in Sherri's huge brick factory along the Mattabesset River in the Kensington section of Berlin, Connecticut.
Leslie Buck, an employee in the company’s marketing department (himself an immigrant and Holocaust survivor from Czechoslovakia), was given the task of selling the cups to Greek vendors. At first, there was no luck for Mr. Buck. But then he decided to design a cup that would remind the Greeks of their home country, and the blue and white WE ARE HAPPY TO SERVE YOU cup was born."
This little painted ode to setting down roots, to the immigrant history of New York, and to blooming where you are planted is painted on cradled wood board with unpainted pale birch sides. It'll ship wrapped in layers of acid free glassine paper and soft padding from my home studio in San Leandro California. less