Martin Crook Is An Addict
Ontario-based illustrator Martin Crook freely admits to his dependency on caffeine. It would be hard to hide it, actually, as references to the stimulant are littered like so many used coffee filters throughout his colorful, imaginative work.
These java-fueled illustrations are “entirely autobiographical,” Martin notes—though he wonders if the proper reference might be “autopictorial”—and while he’s not ashamed of his penchant for percolators, he does consider his addiction “a double-edged sword”. While it consistently fuels his art, it occasionally over-stimulates it.
Like any good insomniac/artist/dental school graduate who might someday seek public office, Martin has a plan to save himself and others addicted to espresso, cappuccino and other takes on the beloved Arabica bean – a “state-sponsored effort to wean them from coffee.”
“I’m envisioning free clinics of the future where those similarly afflicted drag themselves every morning for a dose of innocuous tea,” he says.
However, the illustrator acknowledges that no plan to stir up such drastic social change is perfect: His idea of Free Tea Clinics is less a view of some decaffeinated Utopia than “a nightmarish post-apocalyptic vision,” and therefore requires “staggering hordes of zombies sheltering from the nuclear winter.”
But that idea might change, he adds, after his morning cup of joe.
Grab your cream-and-two-sugars and click here to see what else Martin’s been brewing.
