For the past three years, my wife, Whitney, and I have been coaching our daughter's elementary school basketball team. As volunteers with backgrounds in cheerleading and ballet, we tried various approaches to teaching the sport that first year.
We learned to see basketball as an art of coordinated movement, like dance or improv theatre. From the smallest, scrambling youth league to the NBA--in a climate-controlled arena or the driveway--many of us love watching or rehearsing this dances core moves. The player-performer's dribble and fake, post up and cut, narrating the drama of the final shot: 3, 2, 1, *buzzer!*
This series of paintings is an attempt to picture basketball's essentials as our team does them: the action of the ball on the rim, an individual putting in extra hours, the percussive sounds of ball and shoes, what it feels like to play defense, and so on.
Some of the pieces explore how the game itself can decide what's beautiful: the messy scramble for a loose ball, the anticipation of a game-changing inbound pass, or a boxout when a player gets great position on her opponent, securing the rebound and a big cheer from the audience.
Whitney and I have had the honor of watching these girls grow from pandemic-masked eight-year-olds to resilient preteens who dive for loose balls, rise up after they fall, and face challenges that have no perfect solutions. While showing glimpses of adult-like sophistication on the court, they're still mainly energetic, goofy kids, a delightful duality that inspired me to portray these moments of transition in their lives.
I painted half of these portraits in oil on canvas. For the other six, I carved thick plywood in bas relief before sealing and painting. Some pieces employ both gloss and matte elements. Some shout in loud, electric colors, while others feel more muted. This stylistic variety reflects the diverse experiences I've had as a coach and as an artist, imparting my love of basketball on a group of young people who, I hope, are beginning to appreciate the beauty they're already creating on the court.
