The Cafe Cats

ABOVE: Acrylic Exterior Paint on a 20ft² brick wall.

The Cafe Cats started showing up at Knockbox Cafe long before one of them made it to the outside wall. When I worked at Knockbox as a barista, I drew cats on everything- notes to coworkers, bags of at-home coffee for sale on the back wall, specials boards, and more.

In the summer of 2021, when Knockbox owner Heather and I began working on ideas for a new tote bag design for the West Philly coffee shop, she sent me a photo of a cat doodle I had drawn on a note around the shop. “What about something like this?"

BELOW: Silkscreen on Canvas Tote Bag

ABOVE: Digital image created with Adobe Illustrator and Procreate.

The autumn of 2021, Heather commissioned a mural of the cat on the side of the shop. I decided to change the color palette and textures of the design to better suit the location and medium. Painting this mural was an especially fun process because so many of my favorite customers from when I was a barista at the shop would stop by to chat and catch up with me while I worked. It was very rewarding to have an opportunity to paint a mural in Cedar Park because everyone in the neighborhood was very welcoming and made me feel like a part of the community when I worked at the cafe in 2020.

BELOW: Acrylic Exterior Paint on a 20ft² brick wall.