A Requiem for Doomed Bottles
I think most can appreciate the magic of tasting great bottles of wine. The anticipatory hush as corks are pulled and wine is cautiously poured. The sense of possibility, as haunting aromatics rise from the glass. Finally on tasting, we’re overwhelmed by the humbling notion that we’re consuming history itself. Drinking the product of grapes ripened by long-set summer suns.
Now, bear with me because I don’t want to be a downer, but today we’re not talking about these gilded moments. Oh no, we’re going to talk about the eerie Gothic doubles of the great bottles. We’re talking about the wrong ‘uns…when hope falls apart.
Chad Etting Paints the American Everyday
There’s a bit of mystery to a Chad Etting painting. Applied loosely to canvas, the artist might reference a local car dealership, regional flora, a small tennis club, and snapshots of his own personal history, ‘Lonely in Alphabet City in 2007,’ one might read, the view from a bedroom window, or a bank-sponsored baseball event. Autobiographical and irreverent, a touch of folky Ed Ruscha in the way he uses text and Americana as tools. Etting is also someone who’s lead an interesting life, he’s been a maths and art teacher and currently works at a University near his New Hampshire home, developing his practice by, as best he can, trying to paint something new every day.
Lessons in Elegance
The good news is that style and taste are not innate, they’re learned. “Know thyself” has always been The Golden Rule. And like everything else that’s learned, the earlier one starts the better. I tend to be allergic to rules, but there are a few that are helpful. Simplicity is usually a virtue. Avoid trends, flash, gimmicks, and fads. Buy quality, and think in terms of sustainability. Insist on comfort. Dress appropriately to the occasion, which becomes more difficult when the rules about what is appropriate become more invisible every day. As a general rule never wear anything cheap, overly ornate, or synthetic. Style is an individual’s attempt to perfect a point of view, it reveals the psyche of the person. Taste grows, expands, develops., and this is completely natural. I’m relying here more on gut instinct than thorough analysis, but I think maybe it’s never really occurred to fashion theorists that people may simply enjoy wearing clothes.
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