graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm
Presenting the latest in the series of drawings processed from the source material of small-scale portrait photographs of then-footballers as found within the pages of a 1970-vintage soccer annual, that period just prior to my own development of an interest in the game that, for whatever reason, exerts the most attractive nostalgia. In the particular instance of this original, although common to the project as it’s progressed thus far, there’s a delightful inverted glamour & ‘redolence’ to such names as are involved (Hartlepool, having remained resolutely unfashionable throughout their history, are, as such, one of the truly great names of English football, the likes of which have previously been celebrated at TOoT), which identify what would otherwise be an anonymous image (given the cropping employed, there’s no evidence to suggest that the subject is a sportsman of any kind), of a player/person previously unknown to me.
The habitual light research into the portrait subject’s playing career reveals that Tony Bircumshaw holds the record for being the youngest player to make a Football League appearance for Notts County, his previous club, & that he would have (been) signed for Hartlepool during the managerial reign of the legendary Brian Clough, which are little facts not without interest to the anorakically-inclined.
Soundtrack:
Sparklehorse 'It's a Wonderful Life'
The perfect accompaniment to such a nostalgia-inflected drawing process, an album of such beauty & melancholy, the latter all the more so, perhaps, in the event of Mark Linkous’s passing, it created a quite exquisitely poignant atmosphere, treasuring the traces left behind. The artwork fits so well too.
No comments:
Post a Comment