Legends of the "Ball" well more like a lamp post bulb but you get the metaphor.

Earlier this year I was approached by Jeff Fletcher, a fraternity brother from Oregon State University.  Jeff and his neighbor put light posts in their respective back yards.  His neighbor had his“lamp bulb” hand painted by a McMenamin’s artist.  So Jeff asked if I could paint his “lamp bulb” with an OSU theme.  Knowing absolutely nothing about hand painting large 14" diameter acrylic outdoor globes – I said of course I can.

   

I’ve known Jeff for about 37 years. We’re both avid OSU Beaver football fans and longtime season ticket holders.  In other words we share pain along with our Greek life experience. We went to college in the eighties when basketball ruled the campus and football was a national joke. In 1980 the OSU football team went 0-11 but was ineligible for the Rose Bowl - let that sink in.   At the same time OSU basketball ended UCLA’s historic 13 year reign as Pac-10 Champs!  Considering UCLA went to 10 Final Fours winning 8 NCAA Titles during that period - OSU basketball was a big deal. The Beavers won three consecutive conference titles losing one home game during that period. Lines for admission into Gill Coliseum extended for days leading up to games. Football - not so much.  Students could walk into Parker Stadium AFTER kick-off, sit at the 50 yard line and watch Marcus Allen and/or John Elway.

Fast forward:  OSU basketball descended into purgatory in the 1990’s to join football. In 1999 however football ended 28 consecutive losing seasons - still an NCAA record for futility. 

   

The challenge:  This project quickly became an engineering challenge as much as a creative one.  I tested painting on smaller similar acrylic bulbs but discovered the image did not translate when lit  from the inside.  At night the bulb looked awful.  I found some translucent acrylic paint and thought about a large translucent orange ball with falling leaves or something. That didn't sound challenging or fun. So I went a different direction. Acrylic medium really supports image transfer technique and a lot of my work (that Jeff was admiring) includes image transfer.  So I experimented on the globe and much to my surprise it worked perfectly.  Images could be seen during the day and at night.    

The process:  I lightly sanded the bulb then applied a Golden Acrylic “primer” application I’ve used for non-porous substrates.  From there I went through Golden’s image transfer process.  The fun was the research and assembling images. I focused on stars and moments in OSU Football history.  I mixed B/W with color photos, played with sizing and overlapping and even added some paint to enhance the design. It took a while to create the distressed collage look I was searching for but it was well worth the effort.

The History: On the bulb is the first Heisman Trophy winner west of Oklahoma – Terry Baker 1962 – duh. There are all three OSU Beaver Rose Bowl teams; 1942, 1957 and 1965 and images of the Giant Killers of 1967 including the iconic win over OJ and USC.  I included stars and memories from the Beavers resurgent years starting with my personal favorite moment: Ken Simonton’s run to end the epic double overtime civil war in 1998.  The 2000 Fiesta Bowl is celebrated.  Recent Beaver stars intersect with old ones. For Beavers who don't remember its a chance to be educated! There are historic coaches and a scene from a 1930’s practice behind Weatherford Hall.  There is also opening day at Parker now Reser Stadium in 1953.  

 

I actually painted the Ken Simonton scene on canvas and “transferred” it to the globe.  Jeff keeps the original 12" x 12" painting for his man cave!  Thank you Jeff for letting me run with this project.  It ended up being a whole lot of fun and a great learning experience.  I can now cross light-post-bulbs off my painting bucket list.