Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Art for Wine's Sake

Car art, to be specific....

It's not often that I post in response to any of the gazillion press releases I receive on a weekly basis, but then it's not often that one hits so many of my sweet spots.

Photo courtesy of Harrod Blank.

The good folks at Triage Wines, distributors of some of the finest natural, small-farm wines available in the Pacific Northwest, are putting out the call for wine savvy (and wine hungry) artists in the Seattle and Portland areas to spruce up Triage's fleet of delivery vehicles. In Triage Marketing Director David Baer's own words,

"[Triage] is looking for artists to help the company express the portfolio's specific focus in an artistic and memorable way. While our logo is lovely and all, we want people to know that our business is about promoting natural wines, often farmed by organic or biodynamic methods, which are hand made and express the heritage and specificity of the place from which they come. The logo simply doesn't say all of that - but we think there are some wine-loving masterful artists out there who can!

Interested artists can apply to design and paint one of five vans, transforming it into mobile art. In addition to having their work selected, each artist will win $350 worth of wine from the Triage portfolio and will receive a $100 stipend toward materials. Interested artists can submit sketches via email to baer [at] triagewines dot com. All applicants must include their name and phone number as well. Only applicants in the Seattle and Portland metro areas will be considered. Entries must be received no later than March 15, 2010, and work will take place between April and September 2010.

Full contest details... can be found at http://www.triagewines.com/vanpaint."

I'm not sure it's what Baer has in mind, but I'm picturing something along the lines of the vehicle shown above, the rooftop insect replaced, perhaps, by a plow horse and a huge bottle of Pet-Nat; the van walls emblazoned with murals of dry-farmed vineyards and old foudres; and a grill/hood ornament based on the label design used by the Club Trésors de Champagne. Seeing as I don't live in the PacNW corridor though, feel free to borrow liberally from my vision.

7 comments:

David Baer said...

Too bad neither you nor Harrod lives here in the Northwest. Great concept, though. Hopefully our local artists can come up with something half as creative.

David McDuff said...

All you've got to do, David, is change the rules, up the budget, and fly Harrod and me out there. Assuming he's willing, we'd take care of the rest. Although, come to think of it, I have absolutely no painting and/or sculpture skills....

Seriously, looking forward to seeing the results.

Kelly said...

I'm glad to see people appreciating our media, Artcars make people smile daily, & in some cases are fabulous works of art. And cheap advertising. But not that cheap. I can forward to the masses to see if anyone takes u up on it, but as a professional artist & an artcartist too, I think you're underestimating the budget quite a bit. The One-Shot enamel paint they should use is $5-$20 per colour per small can. So that $100 wouldn't make a dent in it, especially if you want any welded sculptural aspects. When people ask about a commission I usually quote about $2,000, & that comes out time-wise far undervalued. So make sure whoever you use has done one before,& doesn't try to fake it w/ house paints or the wrong glues. There's lots of how-to tips in Harrod's books...
Kelly Lyles

David McDuff said...

Kelly,

I'm in complete agreement that a $100 budget will put a rather severe limit on creativity but I love the possibilities and the wines that Triage handles so I thought I'd help to spread the word.

Hey, you're certainly in the right part of the country. Perhaps you could pitch them a design concept AND a revised budget.

Have you ever been to ArtScape in Baltimore? "Leopard Bernstein" looks strangely familiar.

Thanks for stopping by.

Unknown said...

I am an art car and sculpture artist from the Phx. Az area. And I double kelly's comment. I like to use existing objects that relate to the subject. like wine bottles and labels. But the labor is at least one hundred hours and maybe two. That is to do a nice lasting job. who would work for 50 cents an hour. You might try leting your paid employees have a go at it.

Anonymous said...

While I agree on the stipend being too low, the website for the wine company states:
"Triage wines will provide $100 to each artists toward materials (you are welcome to spend more or less, of course, but our contribution is limited to $100)."

Interested cAr-tists should contact the David Baer directly at the winery and inform him about the stipend being too low to buy even the basic materials for the project, let alone pay for the time involved. baer@triagewines.com

David Baer said...

Thanks to all for your comments. We spent a good bit of time discussing the stipend amount in advance of the contest, and decided that the amount we chose would encourage artists to be conservative in their material choices. We recognize that a larger stipend could allow for much richer looking outcomes. With only 3 days to work, though, we figured the submissions we'd receive would be limited in scope and less intricate than more open-ended possibilities would allow.

We see this as a fun promotional opportunity for both our company and the winning artists. We believe that, while some may not be interested in or satisfied with the award for this competition, there are many natural wine loving artists out there who would be. We hope to reach them - and for the opportunity share their work with the public who see our vans pass by on the streets of Seattle and Portland.

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