“When I was still in school, I used to hang out at local coffee shops with my friends. One day I noticed how plain the paper cup was.” That’s Mariya Suzuki, an illustrator who went to school in California but is now based in Tokyo. “Naturally, I was inspired to draw what was in front of me,” she says, explaining the modest beginnings of her “Drawing to Go” initiative. Now, Suzuki is inspiring others to create their own paper cup art by hosting a workshop and staging exhibitions.
Suzuki’s paper cup art movement has already developed its own legs. Tokyo-based illustrator Adrian Hogan creates panoramic coffee cup sketches and the two even participated in a joint exhibition last month.
This month at FabCafe in Tokyo (and at their other locations like Barcelona and Bangkok) Mariya Suzuki is hosting a free workshop to inspire “people to draw illustrations on their empty take-out paper coffee cups.” The event takes place on October 10, 2015. It’s free but the cafe asks you to buy your own coffee and then sketch a cafe scene and “bring to life the sounds, aromas, and sensations.”