Rene Shoemaker

"Le Kawa, St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France"
Linoleum Print on 100% cotton paper
12” x 12”

While traveling, I am impressed by how a sense of place is incorporated into the simplest of daily routines - drinking a cup of coffee. The personality of the country, the town, and the café become synthesized through the shape, color and placement of the cup on the table. Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, a town in the Basque region of France on the the border of Spain, is in the Pyrénées Mountains of France. Walking up the steep hill towards the citadel we saw signs of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. We stopped in café Le Kawa where it was cool and quiet.