The the matting is made using the “Old Gold”, reminiscent of the Forest Evashevski era.

There are 40 signed & numbered, limited edition, Glicee prints.  They are 14×18, framed with a plaque of Chris’s name, and “1972-1993″.  #1, #13, and #40 have already been reserved.  If you would like other sizes, please contact Sean.

Iowans love wrestling and Iowans love Dan Gable. I had received several requests for either a wrestling piece or Dan Gable specifically, so I knew it was time. This was another piece where I spent several hours researching the subject before beginning my work. It was through this research that I realized just how amazing Dan Gable was and how compelling his story was. I am primarily a football fan but by the time I finished this piece I had become a huge Dan Gable fan.

I have special places in my heart for each one of my drawings, but I wouldn’t be totally honest if I didn’t say this is one of my favorites. I decided to push the limits of detail in this drawing. I tried to summon extreme patience but could not help but rush a little as I was becoming excited at what was appearing on the paper. Although this was definitely my most time consuming piece yet (over 100 hours), I finished it in only a couple of weeks because I just couldn’t stop working on it. Staying up until 3 or 4 am was becoming the norm when working on ‘Stanzi’. The little things that most people may not see are sometimes ... Read More »]]> Select pieces are now available for immediate purchase at the West Des Moines SCHEELS® store in Jordan Creek Towncenter

I have special places in my heart for each one of my drawings, but I wouldn’t be totally honest if I didn’t say this is one of my favorites. I decided to push the limits of detail in this drawing. I tried to summon extreme patience but could not help but rush a little as I was becoming excited at what was appearing on the paper. Although this was definitely my most time consuming piece yet (over 100 hours), I finished it in only a couple of weeks because I just couldn’t stop working on it. Staying up until 3 or 4 am was becoming the norm when working on ‘Stanzi’. The little things that most people may not see are sometimes my favorite in a piece like this. The light pole behind the stands of Kinnick in his helmet that appears to illuminate, the stitching in Rick’s jersey or the veins in his hand. I believe that it may be these “little things” that people may not look at directly but when viewed over time it makes them ask ‘That is a drawing?’ This piece is also a culmination of suggestions from friends and fellow fans. While casually talking with them, they would mention things like “If you do a Stanzi, you have to capture the flyover,” or “You have to catch that shot of him during the National Anthem”. It’s the connections with fans which makes this so much fun because as I always tell everyone, I’m just a Hawkeye fan first, the art is the icing on the cake.

The ‘Stanzi’ is also my first piece that is extremely limited in numbers and could truly become a collector piece and potentially increase in value. One very special print signed by Rick himself has been donated to the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital and will be auctioned at their annual golf open on June 21^st, 2012.

With the wonderful NFL success that Tyler Sash was enjoying, I was becoming flooded with requests to capture him in one of my drawings. Due to working with Tyler on my ‘Faith’ fundraiser, I knew he was not only a close friend and teammates with Brett Greenwood but he also was very active in raising money for those in need. While coming across some photos of these two together in an old Hawkeye photo shoot, the idea came to me of drawing them together and using this piece in another fundraising effort for the newly formed ‘Brett Greenwood Foundation’. Tyler was all for it from the beginning. It was an honor to meet Tyler at his old elementary school in Oskaloosa and ... Read More »]]> Select pieces are now available for immediate purchase at the West Des Moines SCHEELS® store in Jordan Creek Towncenter

With the wonderful NFL success that Tyler Sash was enjoying, I was becoming flooded with requests to capture him in one of my drawings. Due to working with Tyler on my ‘Faith’ fundraiser, I knew he was not only a close friend and teammates with Brett Greenwood but he also was very active in raising money for those in need. While coming across some photos of these two together in an old Hawkeye photo shoot, the idea came to me of drawing them together and using this piece in another fundraising effort for the newly formed ‘Brett Greenwood Foundation’. Tyler was all for it from the beginning. It was an honor to meet Tyler at his old elementary school in Oskaloosa and present him with the first view of this piece in front of 1,100 grade school children. At the time of this publication, the piece has not yet been auctioned but will be on May 25^th at Scheels in Coralville.

Chuck Long is still one of my all time favorite Hawkeye players.  I have fond memories from his days as a Hawkeye from my high school years.  When I started doing this, there were two Hawkeye related figures I knew I wanted to draw; Hayden Fry and Chuck Long.  One of my first real exciting moments related to my Hawkeye Art series came when I was walking down the street and I looked at my phone to see a new email. It came from a Charles Long.  I thought, ‘Who the heck is Charles Long?’  But when I read the email, I realized it was from Chuck Long.  He told me he had seen the finished piece and he really liked it ... Read More »]]> Select pieces are now available for immediate purchase at the West Des Moines SCHEELS® store in Jordan Creek Towncenter

Chuck Long is still one of my all time favorite Hawkeye players.  I have fond memories from his days as a Hawkeye from my high school years.  When I started doing this, there were two Hawkeye related figures I knew I wanted to draw; Hayden Fry and Chuck Long.  One of my first real exciting moments related to my Hawkeye Art series came when I was walking down the street and I looked at my phone to see a new email. It came from a Charles Long.  I thought, ‘Who the heck is Charles Long?’  But when I read the email, I realized it was from Chuck Long.  He told me he had seen the finished piece and he really liked it and gave me his blessing to market it.

As with my ‘Coaches’ piece, this was something I had envisioned in my head for some time. ‘Ironman’ Nile Kinnick in an action pose, accepting the Heisman Trophy and a shot of the stadium that carries his name. This was my first full charcoal picture, meaning that the entire page is filled with charcoal. This piece was very time consuming, but I also found myself extensively researching each subject as I perused old photos to work from. I learned much more about Nile Kinnick during this time and was astounded at what he had accomplished at such a young age.

After experiencing some success with my “Coaches” piece, I began to get requests from merchants who had carried my work, as their customers were providing suggestions and feedback. The first and most often requested item was Herky. I wanted to try to capture Herky in two or three poses. This is definitely one of my more popular pieces. When people look over work but just can’t decide on which piece to purchase, nine times out of ten they will walk away with a “Herky”.

This is without a doubt one of my personal favorites. I started to hear from customers that one of the reasons they loved my ‘Coaches’ piece was because it featured Hayden Fry.  I knew it was time to start drawing one of my favorite sports figures of all time. I knew I had to capture at least one shot of Hayden in the glasses, full mustache and Iowa cap; that’s how I always remembered him when I was young.  I really went out of my way to tell a story and timeline through the images. From 1979 when he first arrived in Iowa City to his 1998 retirement and the 2010 Rose Bowl when he was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall ... Read More »]]> Select pieces are now available for immediate purchase at the West Des Moines SCHEELS® store in Jordan Creek Towncenter

This is without a doubt one of my personal favorites. I started to hear from customers that one of the reasons they loved my ‘Coaches’ piece was because it featured Hayden Fry.  I knew it was time to start drawing one of my favorite sports figures of all time. I knew I had to capture at least one shot of Hayden in the glasses, full mustache and Iowa cap; that’s how I always remembered him when I was young.  I really went out of my way to tell a story and timeline through the images. From 1979 when he first arrived in Iowa City to his 1998 retirement and the 2010 Rose Bowl when he was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame. I had a really tough time narrowing down to three Hayden images that I wanted to use but finally settled on three of my favorites.

I absolutely loved the 2008 season mainly for one reason; Shonn Greene. He ran over and lifted would be tacklers straight off their feet. He was so much fun to watch and his story of determination was very inspiring as well. This was going to be my first ‘feature’ piece of a semi-current player. Somewhere about three-quarters of the way into this drawing, something happened that changed what I would do with future pieces. I discovered while working on Shonn’s helmet in the lower right image, I could place whatever I wanted in the reflection. I opted for trying to capture the pressbox at Kinnick to kind of personalize where he may have been during that run; I loved it.  I’m going ... Read More »]]> Select pieces are now available for immediate purchase at the West Des Moines SCHEELS® store in Jordan Creek Towncenter

I absolutely loved the 2008 season mainly for one reason; Shonn Greene. He ran over and lifted would be tacklers straight off their feet. He was so much fun to watch and his story of determination was very inspiring as well. This was going to be my first ‘feature’ piece of a semi-current player. Somewhere about three-quarters of the way into this drawing, something happened that changed what I would do with future pieces. I discovered while working on Shonn’s helmet in the lower right image, I could place whatever I wanted in the reflection. I opted for trying to capture the pressbox at Kinnick to kind of personalize where he may have been during that run; I loved it.  I’m going to try to capture something in reflections that customers can look for in my work, although I still have to point it out to a lot of people. This was also the beginning of my involvement in fundraising as I was happy to donate the signed original to the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital charity golf tournament.