A malfunctioning coffee pot turned up to be quite the art project for one Army reservist.
Jon Norquist is glad he didn't throw away his leaky machine after nine years because it ended up providing a great artistic inspiration.
"One day I saw the design of the spill, and I really thought it was an intriguing design," said Norquist.
In the months following, Norquist and his wife would spill coffee all over some paper and outline the mess in black to create a unique piece of art.
That experiment has now grown into a full-blown side business called Coffee on Canvas. Norquist says you can catch him working on pieces in the wee hours of the night after working his day job as a civil engineer. The two roles are in sync with one another since Norquist spends most of his full-time work deciding where to make water flow. He basically does the same thing with coffee.
Both Norquist and his wife Kristy are West Point graduates and moved to Tacoma after several tours of duty. The couple has five children and constantly live on the go. Norquist still serves as an Army reserve major and is currently serving a short deployment in Puerto Rico to help after Hurricane Maria knocked out power to the island. The couple works very hard to make it all work.
"It’s insane the amount of support she gives me, just to scratch the itch that is in my brain," said Norquist. "When it's done and you take an insane mess into something beautiful, it really does feel like you did something good. As corny as that sounds, that's what it feels like."
