Max Estes: Remembrance / Replacement

(above) Original Blatz Beer bar sign

There was a time when the signs hanging above bars, pharmacies, cafes, restaurants, and bakeries in my neighborhood were made to last. These signs, regardless of the businesses they adorned, were imbued with pomp, personality, and pride. Such lively signage helped define my neighborhood, Milwaukee’s East side.

These ornate signs, like the fabled innocence of yesteryear, have become a thing of the past, replaced with practical plastic and vinyl signs The new sign has a shelf life, dictated by sales cycles, seasons, and fads. No longer do these signs hanging outside my window define my neighborhood.

Just as Milwaukee’s breweries replaced the forests that once lined the shores of Lake Michigan, condos and high rise towers have now replaced them. Conscious of this cycle, I chose to remake a bar sign in the style of yesteryear that acknowledged its mortality. My sign is not made of sheet metal, rivets, glass tubing, and weather resistant paint. My sign is made of plywood, craft glue, and water soluble paint. This sign is an homage to time past, a remake of something that was made to last, but has indelibly been replaced.




(above) remaking an original out of alternate materials