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How our new ad series was born »Art not being afraid of Advertising«

How our new ad series was born »Art not being afraid of Advertising«

It took me quite some time to find the path we are currently exploring. Since the beginning of Biestmilch I was unhappy with our ads. They have been arbitrary, we wanted to be different, but did not exactly know how to do this. The results have been fairly mediocre and far too intentional.

At the beginning of this year something in my head made click… I just had browsed through my book of painter artist Ed Ruscha once and again, and again I thought that I want to realize something similar. To contact him was my first idea which I discarded within seconds. Serious artists will never align with businesses and especially not with a small and unknown one such as ours.
From experience I knew that I won’t be able to realize any idea if hadn’t the people with the skills and inspirations to do so. But who would be crazy enough and join me with the idea to bring art into sports advertising.

Then it happened that Isabel, an old friend of mine since the early eighties appeared in my mind. I know she was the one who could realize what I had in my mind. By then, I had already played around with words, tried to find lines with a poetic touch. But still I was hesitant to contact her afraid how she might react, probably one reason why I didn’t think of her long before. And moreover, I obviously needed the time for my idea to mature.Isabel is a painter, she doesn’t call herself an artist, but she definitely is. She lives what she is doing, she hates putting labels on things. But even though I knew that she was not vain, and always courageous to leave the beaten path. I was not sure whether she wouldn’t feel abused if I asked her to do advertising for Biestmilch.

 

 But I know her work was perfectly apt to realize my idea.
To cut a long story short, I emailed her, she was enthusiastic about the concept. I flew to Vienna, we met, talked, exchanged ideas of realization and started. This process was so fast, we simply connected… And because it was so fast, so without any frictions I was convinced that the result would be extraordinary.

About Isabel Warner’s technique in brief

The pictures

Isabel works on paper, canvas, cardboard and with  canvas covered cardboard. She has also painted amazing exciting Water Color Books with a touch of mystery in it. Most of her paintings consist of many layers. Sometimes it takes her years to finish one painting, layer over layer is applied over the years.


The results are stunning as the picture gets a very specific haptics.
She is using mixed media such as glaze technique, oil paint, several pencils, shellack, solvents, thinners etc.
When creating a painted or photographed work using mixed media it is important to choose the layers carefully and allow enough drying time between the layers to ensure the final work will have integrity. If many different media are used it is equally important to choose a sturdy foundation upon which the different layers are imposed.As the process to finish one picture is long, Isabel mostly works on multiple images. And it’s always good to look at the pictures later on with a critical distance. “If you work this way”, she says, “you must not be impatient. You will spoil the image.

The letters

She takes advantage of misprints where chemical processes are induced that make the colors run unpredictably over the material used. And again Isabel has to consider the long drying times not to spoil the special effects.
Some of the lettering is printed on different lucid transparencies and then “tortured” with solvents, sandpaper and scalpel. Size and color of the letters needs to match the picture. The impression is a unity of painting and text, a unique texture.

Transparencies are then scanned. The next step is done the computer. The wording is developing into a layer of the painting. And again, the goal is to let the two become one, the lettering an integral part of the picture and not a foreign body.
Behind the result is a lot of experimenting with a lot of patience and a sharp eye. Each experiment can lead to a new interesting technique.

I think what you can see until now is very special. It might provoke controversies, polarize and antagonize, but this is actually what we wanted. We don’t fear discussions, because we know that what we do has got quality and style. We are happy, if people are interested or even irritated, we are happy to launch the hooks for debates.

Honestly, I think readers of magazines deserve more quality, variety and challenge, and they long for it. Time will show whether I am right. Regardless what happens I am determined to continue walking along this line.

Isabel Warner’s amazing oeuvre is a perfect match with Biestmilch I think. Both express the pure power and diversity of nature. Her paintings are powerful and soft in the same time, they are abstract in some parts and they are so concrete in others that you feel like browsing in the book of life starting from the very beginning when our earth was still a hot fireball until it became the home of so many different species and creatures. They are pictures where you have to watch for the details, you discover little things you may not have seen at first glance. Take your time and let the pictures take over your senses.

How advertising usually finds art and art finds advertising

We know of successful advertisers who leave or sell their agency with the intention either to write a book with philosophical touch about advertising or to dedicate their life to art. What this step is lacking is the risky aspect that characterizes the life of many an artist who is not following the mainstream. Do advertisers need to fill an inner gap rather than to follow an irresistible urge to express themselves? Is the advertiser motivated by the void and the artist by abundance?
I have to admit until now I became no fan of the advertiser as an artist. But this point is open for discussion, because here I am very subjective!
But of course there is art that takes advantage of advertising, and benefits from it. Many artists have turned their attention to our commercialized culture and either ridiculed or questioned it to create awareness, pop-art is a good example for this approach. But they didn’t do contract work for a company. This may eventually be the only difference between advertising and art.

Susann

Susann

Susann is the biest prototype and head of the team. She is Austrian, has studied medicine, meaning she is a medical doctor and the Biesters' alpha wolf. Susann continuously produces new ideas, is strong in making concepts and is practically always ON FIRE. Without her BIESTMILCH wouldn't be where and what it is today, and anyway - not possible.

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