Brett Walker

This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate in the Northwest Regional Barista Competition here in Seattle. I just finished uploading the video of my performance here, and my wife has a nice blog post about it as well. While I didn't make it to the finals on Sunday, my performance was great and near flawless and I am really proud of what I did. I feel like I accomplished more in my 15 minute performance than I have in my entire career as an artist. The whole thing was a very "Brett Walker" sort of activity, except I was making coffee, and trying to do so with the utmost care and precision. What really made it so worthwhile for me, besides the fact that I have become that much more comfortable making coffee and understanding coffee, is that I seemed to have really made an impact on people who watched my performance. The entire barista competition thing is very high-end aimed, trying to bring coffee to a higher level of quality and to really push the craft of the barista further. I am all about creating a very enjoyable and tasty culinary experience, and doing so in a very professional manner; however, I find the overall nature of these competitions to be very boring and robotic and fairly pretentious. I feel like my performance was just the opposite of that, and I can't even describe how many people, both serious coffee nerds and otherwise, have approached me since then, telling me how my performance was so refreshing and fun to watch and a great change of pace from the normal stuffy atmosphere of the competition. I think this has become the most important thing for me, besides the fact that I have become a much more kick ass barista, but that I seemed to have really made an impact on everyone that watched.



That said, I am really tired and am going to go put my ego elevated big head down for a nap.

So, no matter how many good intentions I have to produce much art and put it out into the larger sphere of things, somehow or another things come up, and I am not nearly as productive as I would like to be -- not for lack of effort, though.

Much of the last month or two has been spent preparing for the Northwest Regional Barista Competition. Which I am participating in all next weekend. You can read more about that on my wife's blog.

Plus I have been busy with my Youth in Focus duties, attending childbirthing classes, and intensely debating the use of marijuana in greater society.

Additionally, I just found out yesterday that some work I submitted to some shows was selected for exhibition during the month of January. Specifically, one of my video pieces will be shown in a juried show here in Seattle next month.