The Bullpen
mixed media assemblage
2019
24 x 26 x 6 inches
The “cheap seats” reserved for “colored only” were stuck back behind the Bullpen away from the white spectators.
Medium: Old wood farrier’s box and peopled with racist stereotype “Dancing Dan” toy figures. Handmade & painted carved wood African American pitcher.
Men In Uniform
mixed media assemblage
2017
25 x 15 x 4 inches
SOLD
Before and during WWII, Black American soldiers fought in segregated units, played ball in segregated leagues, went to segregated schools, lived in segregated sections of town, and were incarcerated in segregated jails until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Medium: Antique baseball pinball game with Black player spinner surrounded by metal arcade ballplayers with disc photo of Black soldier on top, recessed photo of Negro League ball team morphing into a segregated military platoon. Handmade wood stereotype Black men in uniforms marching.
Time Machine
mixed media assemblage
2021
34 x 12 x 5 inches
SOLD
This work reflects on the cozy pre-WWII years when Baseball was still our national pastime – a time when segregation was a given and opportunity for all did not include everyone. Antique tin baseball game forms the treasure chest of a boy in a baseball uniform.
Medium: Old baseball cards, mitt, bat, punch game, vintage Wilson Walkie toy, vintage campaign pin, soldier’s cap, WWII medal, vintage photo of soldiers playing baseball. On the side is a vintage photo of a young Black soldier.
Womens Day
mixed media assemblage
2022
14 x 14 x 12 inches
This piece honors Toni Stone, the first woman to regularly play professional baseball in the all male American Negro league. She took Hank Aaron’s place at second base for the Indianapolis Clowns in 1953.
Medium: Constructed from an old wood shoeshine box and peopled with wood carvings of women spectators and includes an original vintage photograph of an anonymous woman ballplayer, scoreboard, vintage tin, portraits of little known women baseball players on the sides of the stands.
Time to Turn the Paige
mixed media assemblage
2014
27 x 17 x 6 inches
Satchel Paige, by all accounts, was the greatest pitcher of all time. This piece is yet another reminder about how much talent we as a country have wasted due to our inability to get past racial prejudices.
Medium: Hand carved wood hand – holding an old baseball framed in an old Coke box with vintage Coke signs, old original baseball card of Satchel Paige and original vintage photo of young Black boy in baseball uniform, vintage glove and “dancing Dan” wood toy signifying the Jim Crow era. Vintage advertising tins on the sides of the box.
Black Balled
mixed media assemblage
2015
16 x 24 x 5 inches
Black baseball players were prohibited (blackballed) from playing in white leagues from 1887-1947. Black teams & owners formed the Negro League in 1920.
Medium: Vintage flag & advertising tin, vintage frame & bat, handmade used ball & glove, partial photo of Negro League team found in old bar, old light.