Barista Profile – Catie

As OQ grows in popularity and success, we hope to be able to pay each of our staff what they are truly worth to inspire longevity with us. Catie especially. Her intense level of precision and detail in lettering all of our menus and various other signage art around the shop has been wonderful to behold. Below are a two examples of her talent displayed on 4×6 index cards.

On Catie, in her own words:

Ready to try something different?

Hi, I’m Cathren. I hail originally from the great suburb of Ewing, New Jersey – home to roughly 35,000 people and about 6000 TCNJ students. I more or less grew up in the back of my mom’s photography studio (which, sadly, closed about 13 years ago), watching cartoons and drawing pictures for several hours each day while my mom shot, developed, organized, shipped, and delivered photos. Though an urban planner (nevertheless an artist in his own right), my dad taught me from an early age to appreciate simple yet beautiful things, like the flowers that blossom right when school is about to start each year. I’ve always coveted my brother’s wisdom, imagination and sense of humor, inspiring me to focus harder on better outcomes and to make the best of the mundane. Evidently the environment in which my family raise me incubated a desire to create and preserve images of things that made me happy- hence the food-related images I’ve chose for our show here at OQ. (Ed: Which is just ending.)

That’s hand lettered, not printed.

Today my interests span far and wide, simply put, I am an artist/arts enthusiast with an infatuation with coffee and food. After about a seven year stint in Baltimore, I ended up with a BFA in Illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and a greatly expanded community of friends in all fields of art and design, music, and food. These days I am reunited with my original art circuit in my original stomping grounds, but indulging more so in my coffee passion in hopes that one day it will take me somewhere happy and beautiful.

I dabble in different visual media in varying degrees including pen & ink, gouache, photography, collage and most dry media and in subjects mainly relating to food (obviously), dreams, the absurd, my own shortcomings, and the humor and irony in everyday life. While these particular images are not for sale, I would be more than happy to make a professional quality print (frame optional) for a reasonsable (cheap!) price.