Celeste Mountjoy’s Latest Canvas? Your Morning Coffee Cup

It’s now been more than a decade since Celeste Mountjoy began sharing her surreal, confessional art on Instagram under the moniker @filthyratbag.

Since then, she’s been published in the New York Times, painted murals all over Melbourne, held several solo exhibitions and even put out two books.

So, when Audible began looking for local artists to partner with on their latest campaign, Mountjoy was an obvious choice. For her, the feeling was mutual.

“I was really excited, actually, because I am an avid audiobook girl,” Mountjoy says. “They were totally made for me and what I do.”

The partnership centres on Fuel Your Mornings with Audible, a celebration of morning rituals, from grabbing your first coffee to pressing play on a wellbeing listen to set the tone for the day. One way this is being brought to life is through a special coffee activation from March 24 to 25, where participating cafes across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane will give away 150 free coffees each morning they’re trading. And there’s a sweet bonus: coffees will be served in custom-designed cups featuring artwork inspired by popular titles from Audible’s wellbeing and self-help catalogue.

That’s where Mountjoy comes in. She’s contributed two designs to the project, each based on a quote from an audiobook of her choosing.

Her first design takes its inspiration from The Let Them Theory  by New York Times bestseller Mel Robbins, which positions itself as a practical guide to improving wellbeing by relinquishing control. One particular line struck a chord: “Let other people say, think or do what they want. You can't control it. Your power lies in your response.”

“I thought that it was a really visual quote,” Mountjoy says. “Instantly I went straight to the idea of a mask, and a Scooby-Doo concept of unmasking, like, ‘Ah, that’s who it really is’.”

Expanding on this idea, Mountjoy created an illustration featuring a line-up of besuited figures lowering facades to reveal their hidden selves. The results are surprising, including a rat, a computer and a cheetah – all rendered in Mountjoy’s colourful, iconic style.

“There are all sorts of different characters, but I didn’t want them to be evil necessarily or bad. I just wanted them to be completely unexpected.”

For her second design, Mountjoy turned to Australian author Turia Pitt’s audiobook Selfish. In it, Pitt takes aim at the impossible ideal of the selfless woman, reframing selfishness as a way to reclaim autonomy and rediscover joy. Reflecting on her frustration and self-recrimination during a period of burnout and depression, Pitt writes: “Maybe I could give myself some grace for not being able to be everything.”

For Mountjoy, this was the perfect prompt.

“[The Selfish cup design] was such a pleasant job to work on because of how easily the themes married into what I already do and the kind of stuff that I already look at, which is juggling all of the moving parts in life and how we’re expected to do that gracefully and well, especially as women and mothers.”

Leaning into the comic surrealism that characterises her work, Mountjoy made the metaphor literal: three jugglers perform on a tightrope, somehow keeping not only balls but also babies, houses, and overspilling bowls of cereal spinning effortlessly through the air.

But Mountjoy knows better than most that it’s not effortless. Mornings, in particular, are a challenge. While productivity gurus might recommend spending the pre-work hours to outline daily goals or smash out some emails, Mountjoy sees that time differently: as a chance to protect her headspace and don her armour for the day ahead.

“Everything in the mornings is just about me trying to keep things as calm as possible.”

Most days, this looks like sitting in front of an open window, drinking green tea mixed with jasmine and listening to an audiobook like Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy.

“Listening to other people’s stories helps me get outside of my own head,” Mountjoy explains.

It also helps her explore different perspectives in a way that feeds directly into her work.

“I think everything with art – every element that you bring in, whether it’s words or noise or music or anything that you add into your practice – will give it a completely different feeling. It’s kind of like cooking a cake.

“Everything I listen to becomes an ingredient … It’s all part of the master recipe for making art.”

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Audible. From March 24 to 25, Audible will be serving free coffee in limited-edition Celeste Mountjoy-designed cups at cafes in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane from 7:30am. Discover Audible’s collection of wellbeing audiobooks here.