soCurio | art is for everyone

Edward Patrick Kranz, better known as Ezju, is a native of Erie, Pennsylvania. He now makes Seattle, Washington his home after a decade of traveling the United States with his father and their construction company. He now lives with his wife, Antonyia, and their two beautiful children Tehya and Ayden. Ezju's childhood was spent near the shores of Presque Isle on Lake Erie in the Pennsylvania woods. He spent his time building forts to defend against imaginary invaders, pretended to be Captain Kirk on a hostile vegetative planet and put on Broadway musicals with his cousins for family and neighbors. The love of theater and creating followed him to high school where he was very active in the school theater program both as an actor and as a set builder. Much of his early adult life was spent on the road with his family's construction company, No Such Animal Contractors. It was the years of traveling state to state that sparked an awareness of the distinct sub-cultures within America. Whether it's a child's first days in watercolor or a young couple in pursuit of higher education at a local café painted in coffee, the underlying current in most of Ezju's work is culture. His and others. Today he uses his insights and experiences to paint the world around him, usually with a sense of humor and irony. His current project is a multifaceted look into Coffee Culture on a global scale. He has already begun the American leg of his journey by painting scenes of the corporate coffee influences as well as vignettes of social coffee culture. What makes these paintings even more special is the fact that they are painted with coffee. Combining coffee and wax, Ezju has started another sub-series, Coffee Culture: Barista Foam Art. These en caustic emulations are homage to the talented baristas who make art out of food. Art imitates art. As for the near future? The next level of the Coffee Culture series; trips to Guatemala, Costa Rica, Columbia and other coffee producing nations. Ezju would like to visit plantations and small fair trade farms as well as cultural centers to see how coffee influences local customs. In the end, he should have a contrasting visual description of cultures across the world with one common theme. Coffee. Currently, Ezju works in his Seattle based studio, No Such Animal Studios and is also founder of Ph'Kaki Media & Design also based in Seattle, WA.