Stephen Holland
There is an art to sports, one that most of us can only understand when we see Michael Jordan fly through the air toward the goal or witness a shot by Tiger Woods as it glides precisely to its resting place in the final hole. Beyond that, there is an intensity in sports that can never be captured with a mere photograph—in those frozen images, we miss the cheering of the frenzied crowds, the rush of expectancy as the ball rushes towards its target, and the calm of a master of the game.
It takes an artistic master to capture those moments, and artist Stephen Holland is one of those masters. In his hands, the greatest players of yesterday and today are caught with all the energy of seeing them in person, especially through Holland’s use of painted words that recall the cheering crowds, the frenzied brushstrokes that capture the movement of his subjects, and the perfect expressions on the faces of each athlete.