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Links » Artistic Works
Benjamin Blackburn: Known for his virgin mahogany sculptures of sports figures. Since the fall of 2001, Blackburn has created 113 pieces of baseball art. His subjects have included Ted Williams ('Hub Kid'), Sandy Koufax ('Sandy') and even Moe Berg ('Spy-Catcher') as well as a reproduction of the famed T206 Honus Wagner baseball card and the 33-cent Jackie Robinson stamp.
Kadir Nelson: Famously known for his Negro League paintings in Sports Illustrated and his award winning book, "We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball". In 1999, Nelson began to collaborate with several notable authors on a series of picture books. Presently, almost twenty illustrated books are in print, including Debbie Allen's DANCING IN THE WINGS, Ntozake Shange’s Coretta Scott King Award-winning book, ELLINGTON WAS NOT A STREET, Deloris and Roslyn Jordan's best-seller SALT IN HIS SHOES, Spike and Tonya Lee’s PLEASE, BABY, PLEASE, and Carol Boston Weatherford’s MOSES: When Harriet Tubman Led her People to Freedom,” for which Nelson won a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, a Caldecott Honor and an NAACP Image Award.
Dane Tilghman: Specializing in fine art prints, original paintings, sculpture and exhibitions. His Negro League postcard series is a highly desirable collectible. Tilghman has established himself as one of the premier painters of African American Golf Art and Negro League Baseball images. Since 1979, Dane has exhibited his artwork throughout the North/South-East at festivals, galleries, trade shows, and conventions. Dane has received numerous awards, including the Medal of Honor in Graphics from the American Artists Professional League. In 1999, a Dane Tilghman baseball image was incorporated into the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown. Additionally, Dane has created a baseball mural for Turner Stadium in Atlanta and he has displayed his Negro League Baseball Prints at Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia. Venues where Dane's art has appeared have not been limited to galleries and sports related events; his artwork has also appeared in Sports Illustrated, and on ESPN's website.
James Fiorentino: Fiorentino has been featured on national and regional television, magazines, and newspapers including ABC World News Tonight with Dick Shaap, CBS This Morning, ESPN's Baseball Magazine, ESPN Magazine, The New York Times, Fox After Breakfast, NBC Good Day New York, MSG's New York Yankee Pre-game Show, and the New York Mets television broadcast just to name a few. He has been interviewed by ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, and UPN affiliates throughout the country.
Mike Floyd: He began by drawing on an old baseball one night in July 2003. Since then, Floyd's artwork has developed in great detail. Each ball includes player composites, career statistics, and vintage-photographic-quality illustrations that are created completely by hand. For Hand Painted - one of a kind, artwork on a baseball this is the place to go. You will find great imagery on the Jackie Robinson baseball.
Todd Peterson: The great historian on pre-league teams is also an incredible astract artist and painter about baseball life. In 2009, he won the Negro Leagues Committee's coveted Robert Peterson Recognition Award for his excellent research on the Minneapolis Keystones and the St. Paul Colored Gophers. Peterson claims his hand-painted work is a physical elegy to the people and things he loves most. He hand paints his stencils without the aid of photo-mechanical processes, with each screen print consisting of between 300 and 400 separate color applications, with each single edition of prints taking upwards of a year to complete.
Art Miller: Miller's paintings have been featured in a one-man show at the National Baseball Hall of Fame for the past five years. His Works are collected internationally, and has graced the covers of many book jackets and periodicals.
Reuvenz Beingz: Noted and internationally known caricature artist, Reuven Harris, has channeled his love and
admiration for players from the Negro Baseball Leagues into a sensational hand-crafted sculpture. Each original sculpture is replicated into a quality figurine made from resin and hand painted to give the look and feel of the original artwork. A combination of his unique caricature style and the three-dimensional design makes each figurine a one-of-a-kind product. Pictured are figurines of Sammie Haynes, Satchel Paige and Verdell Mathis.They plan to launch a series of figurines for all the Cooperstown Hall of Famers.
Preston Sampson: Sampson has completed a series of works portraying the life and play of the African-American men who starred in the Negro Baseball Leagues for nearly half a century. Through vibrant acrylics on canvas, vivid watercolors, and mixed media collages, Sampson recalls the play and excitement of such teams as the Homestead Grays, the Black Yankees and the Black Barons. Sampson's work depicting a Pittsburgh Crawford player was published by the Smithsonian Institute in 1994.
The baseball series is indicative of Sampson's direction as a painter. "I feel that representing positive aspects of our history as African Americans is a priority and a responsibility that I have as a visual artist. Long after we are gone, hopefully, the art will remain as a testament to our culture. Historically all cultures have left behind a trail of who they were that is often omitted by the dominant culture, we as African Americans must do the same."
Ben Sakoguchi: From the 1880's to the 1950's, California oranges were sent to market packed in wooden crates with big, milti-colored labels pasted on the ends. Just as the actual labels had depicted a wide variety of subjects — Sakoguchi's paintings sampled events, issues and attitudes of modern culture. He produced several hundred orange crate label paintings (1974 - 1981) depicting several baseball images.
Vernon Wells: For more than 30 years, Vernon (the artist known as "V") Wells, marketed himself directly to the players themselves. His painting can be found in homes of Rookies and Hall of Famers alike, Media guides, posters and lithographs. Even the original cards of Upper Deck feature his work. Wells is the father of Major League Gold Glove centerfielder, Vernon Wells, III.
Garth Potts: His work is diverse in subject matter. It includes Judaic prints generated over a five year period begining in late 1991. The Newport News, Virginia native also has a series that covers a wide variety of sports and players, combining action, detail, bright colors and crowd reactions. Some of his Negro League drawings include Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, the New York Cubans and the funny man of black baseball Birmingham Sam Brison, of "Bingo Long" movie fame.
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