This painting was inspired by what I was learning about the coffee industry. The silhouette represented here is of a coffee plant. The hand-stitching around the plant is a foreshadowing of the next painting in the series. I remember feeling shocked learning about the lack of fair wages in the coffee industry. Coffee, the second-largest, globally traded commodity after oil, with worldwide sales of $55 billion, is dominated by a handful of multinational corporations that acquire beans from small producers in nearly 50 countries, all in the developing world. The industry is dominated by four multinational companies (Procter and Gamble Co., Philip Morris Companies Inc., Sara Lee Corp., and Nestle). For every pound of coffee sold in the United States - which can vary from $2.69 for a 13-ounce can of Folgers to $8.49 for a one-pound bag of Starbucks beans - farmers get less than 35 cents and coffee pickers less than 14 cents, according to industry statistics. 

"All Who Dwell In Dark and Sin" - Acrylic, hand cut letters, paper, and thread on canvas,  28 ”x 37” 2.2007