Sunday, November 30, 2008

Clipping Found While Cleaning ...

Frequently while cleaning, I find clippings from magazines, books, and old notebooks with quotes on them. The most recent one I have uncovered is an old Chivas Regal Scotch Whiskey ad ...

"THIS IS THE KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR POLAR BEARS, WHERE THE HELL ARE WE, NOT ON THE GUIDED TOUR LIFE."

Now that I have recorded here online, I don't feel the need to keep the small piece of paper which was once on my bulletin board in a prominent spot. For years. Why did I keep this slogan for so long? Disconnected from the product, the idea is pretty good; the ad is basically describing a take-the-path-less-traveled sort of life style. It is cute that the advertiser is trying to convince the viewer of the correlation between the scotch and such a life-style. I'm not sure if they are saying that you need the scotch in order to live on the edge, or that those who live on the edge drink this scotch. Who wouldn't want to be out fishing on an ice cap like the suave young men featured in the commercial? Right.

Either way, as a young woman who drinks scotch regardless and is more interested in the text than the product ... the idea is still a nice one. Thanks, Chivas.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Artists of Today's Search

In my efforts to find contemporary female painters to whom I should look for guidance and inspiration, I came across Susan Grossman on the DFN Gallery Website. She works with charcoal and pastel. Not the oil painter or a portraitist I was seeking, her work has a livliness and energy which winds out from her limited pallatte to engage me in her detailed city scapes, a helpful lesson nonetheless! Her work does not seem to be photorealist. Instead, she does what I am glad artists can do: expresses something intangible in the snap that a photo would do differently.

Thank you, DFN.