This is a commissioned artwork for the Chevrolet Like A Rock commercial that aired from 1991 to 2004. In this image, as I have always done, I place the music moving from left to right. The color of that music is a tinted Primary Cyan, which is a close match to the blue across the front of every Chevrolet dealership. I am using darker shades of that same blue for the other parts of the music, to avoid one-color-boredom. At the top of this image is a clamp, to improve the glued bond between wood and aluminum.
Although my Father, a lifetime car guy, made his money with a Ford Lincoln Mercury, heavy truck dealership, I think he was generally more a General Motors car person. Of course being a true car lover, his last, most favorite and greatest car he ever owned was his S Class 500 Mercedes sedan. Still, my early car memories are of his first Cadillac. I can see it today as a 1964, probably an aspen white, De Ville. For Dad buying a Cadillac was more than having a great car. Thinking back I wonder if for him that Cadillac was a defining moment. Maybe that was the point where he no longer thought of himself as a son of a Swiss immigrant. From then on, he wanted to be known as a respected and successful American businessman.
My 2006 picture of my Father Warner, and his Mercedes
Creating the Chevrolet logo brings back those memories of growing up in the automobile business that my Father built. To this day I still love the sight and smells of new cars on the showroom floor. And like my Dad’s Cadillac, I had a car passion: “Like a rock, I was strong as I could be, Like a rock, nothin’ ever got to me, Like a rock, I was something to see.” My car was my red 1968 Mustang, and then my yellow 1970 Mach I Mustang. There where the road and bar trips with friends, but the best part came in fall when I drove my Mustangs back-and-forth, and around the streets of Madison. I was particularly proud, to let the campus ladies, take full advantage of getting around that little big city, with me, in my cool wheels. I too, like Dad, once thought, I was something to see.
Scott Von Holzen
art IN music 