Even today, with the art market soaring high, it can be a struggle to make it as an artist. Pure talent isn't always recognized. Sometimes an artist needs a good marketing ploy. Born in Australia, raised in Lebanon, artist Sid Chidiac appears to be acutely aware of this. He is an "oil and chocolate painter," featured in this week's Time Out:

Chidiac has been working in edible pigment since arriving in New York in 1993. By mixing melted chocolate with powdered food-coloring, he achieves the proper shades to render likenesses of Marilyn Monroe, JFK and ol’ Honest Abe Lincoln. As long as they are kept out of sunlight and handled delicately, the portraits can last a decade or more.

People have been known to press their noses up against his paintings and even, occasionally, venture a lick. Which is probably totally unacceptable art show etiquette. But, as the article points out, "when your medium is rich Barry Callebaut Belgian chocolate, there is a certain built-in animal attraction of audience to art."

Quite a marketing gimmick that. Chidiac generally keeps his chocolate portraits off the retail market. Instead, they lure people in to buy his oil paintings. This brings a new twist to an old saying: the way to a buyer's heart is through his stomach.