Pabst Blue Ribbon is touring an exhibition of artworks inspired by one of the beers that made Milwaukee famous as a suds town and the first stop is Stonefly in Riverwest. The works can be seen Monday, Dec. 17 from 7 until 11 p.m.
One of those works is by Menomonee Falls resident William Scott, a collector of PBR memorabilia that painted a work he titled, "The One and Only."
Some of the works can be seen at www.pbrart.com. They were selected as part of a competition encouraging beer-loving artists to put brush to canvas in the "Can on Canvas" contest. More than 100 works were submitted and five top winners earned $1,500 and two years' worth of Pabst beer.
Scott says he learned of the contest from his wife and decided to give it a try.
"I had started experimenting with art after I retired and had both hips and my knee replaced. I had some time on my hands and my mother was something of an amateur artists, so I gave it a try. I had sketched a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon and had it on the wall in the basement, alongside my other Pabst memorabilia and neon signs. When I heard about the contest, I put color to my sketch and entered it. I named the painting ‘The One and Only' because it's been the only beer for me for 40 years!"
The tour has two shows of artwork crisscrossing the country, stopping in 22 cities. Then, some of the works will be used to advertise and promote Pabst beer.
It makes sense that Milwaukee is the first stop on the tour, says Bryan Clarke, senior brand manager for Pabst Blue Ribbon.
"Milwaukee will always be the original home of Pabst, and we are excited to make the market part of our efforts. Milwaukee's growing art and independent music scenes have been great supporters of the Pabst Blue Ribbon brand, and have embraced the brand for avoiding traditional beer marketing tactics."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
