Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1901-07-12
PAINTING BIG SIGNS
ARTISTS WHO DEVOTE THEIR TAIL
EMIT TO ADVERTISING PURPOSES.

some OF Them Have had Years OF
Training In Drawing and Color
work, and some Have studied In
FnmOus old World Ateiiers.
Although the vivid advertisements Of
The excellences Of foods. ointments,
clothing, all mechanical appliances
known TO man aud q thousand other
things never dreamed OF In the philoso-
ply Of a hundred years ago are contin-
ually catching the eye and possibly
shocking the artistic sensIbilities Of the
beholder, few of the ordinary observers
give q moments question to the max.
ers Of advertisements. The advertls-
Ing craze has grown Of late to such
huge and unlovely proportions that any
brief account falls to explain it's work
ings. The office of n large advertising
concern Is one Of the busiest places In
town. Artists are constantly appear
ing with designs for the firm, a small
army Of men with paint pots and brush
es are lowering about waiting TO be
sent out, and everywhere ere gay evil
dences Of the results of all this labor.
"Who are the men that paint these
heroic pictures one sees on unused
walls and lofty fencesT' asked a re-
porter Of one Of the men who Keeps
these s%ubordinates busy.
"They are not the people you think
them, | fancy" was the answer TN
stead Of being daubers, with about the
ability necessary to WELD a whitewash
brush, our best men are real artists.
BY this l mean that many of them
have had years Of training in drawing
and color work. Several of them have
studied abroad In the ateliers Of well
known men. A man whom ! saw paint
ing a head on a wall yesterday Is d
night instructor in q Brooklyn art
school. Recently one Of our men paint
ed on u large wall the biggest portrait
ever attempted. He had studied five
years in the Paris art schools"
"Why do they take up this work."
"The other doesn't pay. It's q case
Of 'commercialism in art They find
that they can't make the real thing
pay, so they come to this common
calling. There's money in 1t. Why,
u star painters get $50 a week. The
daubers, who put in backgrounds,
don't earn more than $40 or $50 a
week."
The men who paint the designs in
various inaccessible and conspicuous
places have with them small copies
of the designs to be reproduced. Long
experience makes them expert in &C
~curately tracing the design upon the
chosen surface. Although the familiar
advertisements scattered over the city
seem exactly alike and n face seems
the exact counterpart Of another, YET
closer inspection will show various
points Of difference. In the case Of O
very familiar picture which is display
ed from one end Of the United States
to the other, when 1t was first brought
out one man was hired for the sole
purpose Of painting that one design,
and to do this he travelled from Maine
to California.
mot the least Of our difficulties
said the advertising man, SIS finding
places to put our signs. We hire men
who do nothing else but go about and
obtain permission from owners to put
up billboards on their premises, use
a vacant wall or decorate a fence or a
roof. 1t needs great tact to do this.
When there are objections, they must
be overcome, and after this is done
the owner often gets the idea that his
available space is worth thousands of
dollars to US and to him, The expe-
riences Of advertising men among
farmers and tramps would make q
mighty interesting book"
"Why do you say trampsr
"Oh, the tramps are Il worst enc.
mics. They build fires behind oul
billboards and burn them or else teal
them down out Of sheer ~wantonness."
When asked about the price a blanl
brick wall In q conspicuous part o.
New York would bring to its owner 4
he let it for advertising purposes, tn,
, advertising man laughed and said III
could not tell that, but he did not min'
saying that he was now paying $1,000
J a year rent for a wall In the middle o
the shopping district. This is not al
J unusual sum to pay" he added, "fo
such prominent positions"
Advertising firms are liberal sub
scribers to all art magazines, particu
o larly to those French art periodical
which display the newest drawings o
the still popular poster. The ideas o
q the foreign artists are taken freely an
n converted into gaudy designs for ac
e vertlsing the latest song or a new eiga
without the least compensation, since
as the advertisers assert, America
p ideas are assimilated abroad just q
unceremonlously.
o Not all the large reproductions of fl
ures and faces on u streets and alon
the roof tops are handwork. Many
p them are machine made. By a process
y akin to that Of making Autographs mi
chimes have been invented to lay th
u colors automatically. The anishe
product, quite devoid OF %personalit,