Beast Mob

"Beast Mob"

My friend Tom Andrich, a graphic designer for NIKE Apparel, commissioned me to create something for his private collection, while celebrating NIKE’s work with the NFL. As a member of one of the world’s most recognizable brands, Tom has collaborated to create many of the uniform designs we see on "Sunday"  In addition, Tom is a talented artist and passionate collector of original art. His private collection, which adorns the walls of his beautiful home, covers a variety of genres. In reaching out to me, he said he wanted to celebrate some of the great sports illustrators of the 1960s, 70s and 80s – artists like Merv Corning, Bart Forbes and George Bartell. I am honored to be in the same sentence with these masters AND to be part of Tom’s personal collection.

The project:  Tom chose this image of Seahawk star Marshawn Lynch aka “Beast Mode” to showcase the uniform. Lynch earned that moniker by famously running over his opponents as much as running around them. My love of the NFL and its long history made me think of an evolutionary theme featuring Hall-of-Fame running backs from different eras. In this way I could contrast other “beast” runners and uniform history as well. Bronko Nagurski from the 1930s, Marion Motley from the 1940s, Joe Perry from the 1950s, Jim Brown and Jim Taylor from the 1960s, Larry Csonka and Earl Campbell from the 1970s, John Riggins from the 1980s and Jerome Bettis from the 1990s – 2000s. I chose old Sports Illustrated magazine covers as the backdrop to reinforce history and time. I used image transfer technique with both color and black and white images, and even pasted some images to the surface to give it more texture. I included many of Tom’s favorite athletes and some NIKE icons. Yes, those the Beatles and why not?  There's even a little something for you science geeks.  Check out the “monkey to man” images along the bottom – just in case the evolution theme needed reinforcement. My goal was to create something that people will stop and examine and have a little fun with. 

 

It’s 24”x 30” acrylic medium on canvas. I also created the frame which ends up being part of the piece.

This was a lot of fun.  Thank you, Tom.