Gridiron Memories

I remember well my last day as a competitive football player.  I was trying out as an offensive lineman at the Ottawa Sooners rookie camp, and even though I had passed the first round of cuts, I had decided the time had come to hang up the gear. Being honest with myself, I had no future in the sport.  And I now no longer found joy (if ever I did at all) in battling 260 lb. men over a scrap of muddy ground...especially since I had other, less hazardous interests like the arts to pursue.  And yet, 31 years later, those two disparate activities would reunite in a most pleasant and rewarding way.

It was at the 2013 Ottawa Art Expo, when I was visited at my booth by Paul and Darlene Stewart.  Paul and I had been teammates in high school on the SRB Bengals, a team that in our junior year won the city championship.  We hadn't seen a lot of each other in the intervening years, but it immediately was like old times.  Best of all was Darlene's 50th birthday present for Paul which she presented to him at that moment.  It was a card saying that she had commissioned me to paint a vintage football scene for Paul (Darlene had approached me with this idea a few months earlier).  Paul was thrilled and we immediately started discussing what that piece might look like.
It wasn't going to be created from one specific photo, but instead would be something entirely original.  "quintessential" rather than "specific".  When it came to the topic of the weather conditions, I suggested it could be a bright sunny fall day or possibly a wet, snowy miserable one where the plus-one-degree-weather is just warm enough to keep the puddles liquid.  Of course, Paul choose the latter option and we both had a good laugh.  Football in fall in Canada.  Yup.
So in the end, it's a leaden grey sky that the sun is trying to breach, and all the while swirls of November snow make their way to the ground.  Lit by that pale light are the blue and gold of our protagonists, and the red and grey of their foes.  Those colour schemes are based on the Bengals that Paul and I played for, and those of our arch rivals, the Confederation Cardinals.
"The Touchdown", a large 30" x 40" canvas, now graces Paul's man cave...about as good a place as exists to watch a game.  And a couple of years later, Paul got me to make up a print to auction off for the benefit of the Bell Warriors, a community football organization that he devotes much of his time to.

I have many fond memories of the four years that I played football, but the decision to walk away from the game is one I've never regretted for a second.  Battling over a scrap of cold November earth is a task for younger generations.  I'm happy now to be a mere documentarian of such moments from the warmth and safety of my studio.