{"id":39534,"date":"2017-02-20T16:00:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T21:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.realstylenetwork.com\/lifestyle\/?p=39534"},"modified":"2017-09-15T10:15:34","modified_gmt":"2017-09-15T14:15:34","slug":"toronto-latte-artist-brian-leonard-spills-on-his-signature-creations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realstylenetwork.com\/lifestyle\/2017\/02\/toronto-latte-artist-brian-leonard-spills-on-his-signature-creations\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Latte Artist Brian Leonard Spills On His Signature Creations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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While countless folks may count on the occasional cup of coffee to keep them energized during a stressful day, Brian Leonard regards the substance as art. More specifically, the Toronto-based artist (who is affectionately known as Barista Brian to his fans) creates intricate designs inside coffee. Leonard\u2019s latte art is created with ingredients like steamed milk, and has even found popularity among celebrities like John Legend. The artist, who trained in opera before discovering his passion for edible art, has recreated everything from portraits to scenery inside his cups.<\/p>\n

Intrigued by his unusual art form, Real Style spoke to Leonard about his inspiration and creative role models. From perfecting his latte creations to being influenced by legendary artists of the past, Barista Brian shared the story behind his craft.<\/p>\n

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Real Style: What inspired you to start creating latte art? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Brian: <\/strong>I was bartending at a wine bar in downtown Toronto, and we had an espresso machine there. It was my first time working with an espresso machine. To me, it was a way to be creative in an environment that wasn\u2019t necessarily creative. As soon as I figured out that you could pour shapes and you could do designs, that\u2019s all I wanted to do when I was at work. I was always trying to make lattes and cappuccinos and I left that to actually go into a caf\u00e9, to learn even more about latte art. I\u2019ve always been a performer, so if I can illicit reaction from someone in a positive way, I\u2019ll probably try to do that.<\/p>\n

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Real Style: As a performer, do you also have any other forms of creative expression?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brian: <\/strong>I studied opera [at University of Prince Edward Island and Dalhousie University], and I\u2019ve been performing in Toronto. Music is still a part of my life, I still record and perform. I don\u2019t do it on the scale that I do latte art publicly, which is kind of a funny thing.<\/p>\n

Real Style: What are some of the biggest challenges of working with edible ingredients? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Brian: <\/strong>If I don\u2019t steam the milk correctly, that\u2019s an issue. If the espresso is not right, that\u2019s an issue. It\u2019s hard working with hot substances, because as soon as I start to make it, it\u2019s already disintegrating in milk. To do fine detail work, it\u2019s like speed painting. I have to be very fast, and I have to make sure each action has purpose and meaning, before it starts to fall apart, because the image will melt. It\u2019s all about creating that one moment of almost near perfection. I see the birth and death of each thing I make.<\/p>\n

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Real Style: Where do you find your inspiration?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brian: <\/strong>I\u2019m inspired by the people I meet. A lot of what I do is about engaging people, leaving an impression of them and their latte. In order to do that, I need them to leave an impression with me of who they are. That\u2019s why I like to talk to people while I\u2019m making them a coffee caricature or impression.<\/p>\n

Real Style: Are there any designers or artists who are your role models? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Brian: <\/strong>I\u2019m inspired by Andy Warhol. His career trajectory was amazing and his cultural impact as well. It\u2019s trying to emulate something in a small cup. He\u2019s kind of what started me using more colour, because I was looking at the colours in his pictures and paintings and wanted to see if I could do that. I like Impressionists as well, Van Gogh or anything that\u2019s just not real.<\/p>\n

Real Style: Is there a creation of yours which you are especially proud of, and what makes it special? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Brian: <\/strong>I tried to do Starry Night<\/em> by Van Gogh, with milk and food colouring. Looking at it, I\u2019m my worst critic and thought I can do that better. But like I said before, I don\u2019t like to do things more than once, and when I was looking at it the other day, I thought that\u2019s the performance, that\u2019s it. You\u2019re not going to do it again. If you do, it will be in a different way. I\u2019m really proud of that, because it\u2019s fun to put myself out there. I\u2019ve been doing landscapes as well. Bob Ross, who was a famous landscape painter and had a TV show where he would teach people how to paint landscapes, I was watching a bit of his TV show and started doing that in lattes. It\u2019s been amazing how I\u2019ve been able to mix colour to create these skies, and a whole world in a cup.<\/p>\n

Real Style: Has there been a memorable celebrity who you\u2019ve created latte art for?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brian: <\/strong>I went to Sundance, and John Legend was there and posted [his latte] on Instagram. A lot of people, like Rashida Jones, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Common, Jack Black. It\u2019s been unreal; it\u2019s allowed me to meet so many different people. When you\u2019re meeting an extreme talent, to have them validate your talent and perspective as an artist is amazing.  <\/p>\n

Photos: Brian Leonard <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While countless folks may count on the occasional cup of coffee to keep them energized during a stressful day, Brian Leonard regards the substance as art. More specifically, the Toronto-based artist (who is affectionately known as Barista Brian to his fans) creates intricate designs inside lattes. Intrigued by his unusual art form, Real Style spoke to Leonard about his inspiration and creative role models. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":39535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20189,21418],"tags":[25777,25781,25776,25779,25782,25778,25780],"class_list":["post-39534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-living-2","tag-barista-brian","tag-barista-brian-latte-art","tag-brian-leonard","tag-edible-art","tag-edible-artwork","tag-latte-art","tag-toronto-artists"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realstylenetwork.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realstylenetwork.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realstylenetwork.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realstylenetwork.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realstylenetwork.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39534"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.realstylenetwork.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39540,"href":"https:\/\/www.realstylenetwork.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39534\/revisions\/39540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realstylenetwork.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realstylenetwork.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realstylenetwork.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realstylenetwork.com\/lifestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}