YORKTON - When you are an old sports fan – maybe long-time sports fan is a nicer way to say that – certain things from the past bring back memories.
When I was but a youngster I was a sports card kid. Not a collector, but a gatherer when the coins amounted to a pack, those cards handled daily.
I particularly recall a white-bordered O-Pee-Chee hockey set circa 1970. I was a scant 10 and loved those cards.
So fast forward to December and I came across an artist in B.C. who was essentially recreating some of those well-remembered cards as pieces of art.
I of course fired off an email and set up an interview with the artist: Jeremie White.
So how did White end up creating sport-related art?
“As a kid I always loved sports, especially hockey,” he explained.
White would in time turn to art.
“As a developing artist I drew and painted subjects I really loved,” he said.
White would end up focusing on graphic design as a career, but maintained his love of sport, eventually creating a ‘sports room’ in his home which had him “doing some painting for that room.”
People saw what he had created an liked it – a lot.
“They were commissioning me to some,” said White, who added that interest was enough to spur him to do more sport art as a sideline to his graphic design career.
The aforementioned O-Pee-Chee cards drew White, in part because he was a young fan in that era, and in-part because there is something of a graphic design-influenced look to the cards.
“I loved looking at those cards,” said White.
So White has created a number of cards as art, Ken Dryden, Guy Lafleur, Bobby Orr and beloved Vancouver Canucks Pat Quinn and Bobby LaLonde.
“I’ve done a few more modern players,” he said, but peruse his online gallery and most pieces are of players from decades ago.
White said he essentially blows up the cards to large pieces of art suitable to being hung on a wall.
“It’s these little objects of dreams from my childhood and I’m making them big,” said White, adding it was artist Andy Warhol – familiar for works like paintings of a soup can who said, “’you ought to make things big. People like it that way’.”
White said his works create a nostalgic appeal for sport fans, adding people are often fans of teams and players “based on seeds that are planted as kids.”
When they are older and creating ‘man caves’ or sport rooms, a piece of art hearkening back to the early days of fandom can be much sought after.
As White’s career developed he began to draw the interest of other artists, some who see him as a mentor.
“I had a show in Kelowna years ago,” recalled White, adding that seemed to open the door to a new enterprise of sorts.
“It grew to the point I had some other artists asking me questions.”
White said when an artist contacted him, if he really liked the sport art they were doing he’d add it to his website; www.SportsArt.ca
Today the site has works of six artists besides White himself.
“It’s a passion project,” White said of the site.
The works are rather diverse in approach too; Anthony Jenkins incorporating hockey tape, art deco inspired works by Paine Proffitt and Anthony’s Jenkins hockey portraits on table hockey boards.
“I love all kinds of artwork,” said White.
