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The Last Word

Source: Slam!Sports
Date: May 7, 2006
Author: Bill Lankhof
Steven Petroff loves the Maple Leafs and Darryl Sittler.

Sara Petroff's favourite team runs more along the lines of The Group Of Seven; she loves Rodin, fine art and believes painting the corners doesn't necessarily involve Roy Halladay.

Together they've managed the Petroff Art Gallery, located on Eglinton Ave. near Bathurst, for 14 years, and this week they play host to a most unlikely of marriages: Art meets sport.

The gallery's SCORE! Art Exhibition, opens Thursday, featuring works from the likes of Raptors star Chris Bosh, Argos receiver Andre Talbot, sports broadcaster Dan Shulman, Darryl Sittler, Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash -- and a few others who wouldn't recognize a canvas unless Hulk Hogan was falling on it.

"It's a juxtaposition from what people normally associate athletes with," Steven Petroff said. "Their world is brawn and physical. But, these guys have sides to their character nobody sees."

The show also features work from professional artists: Anne Murphy's whimsical paper mache of a hockey mom or a black-eyed hockey player, or a jockey leaning over his horse. Illustrator Tony Jenkins has Game Faces -- hockey icons painted on table hockey games that can be mounted to the wall. There are wire sculptures and Gary Mathews' blown-glass putters. And, yes, they can be used, though they are best not displayed wrapped around a tree near the 18th green.

The artwork is for sale, but money from the celebrity pieces -- which are being sold by silent auction for the duration of the show Thursday through June 4 -- goes to the Sick Kids Foundation.

"We're always looking for ways to make guys feel comfortable with the art surroundings," Petroff said. "I'm conscious of how guys feel. I don't want them to walk in here and feel like a bull in a china shop. There's so much energy in sports and we're hoping to transfer that into the arts."

The idea to bring the two together has evolved over the past year.

"We had a number of artists creating sports related work," Sara Petroff said. "Then we thought wouldn't it be nice if we could also get sports celebrities creating art works and blend the two ... They've done some incredible pieces of work."

Maybe. But figure skater Kurt Browning admits they might not want to give up their sweatsuits just yet.

"It's not very flashy," Browning said of the skates on which he waxes poetic. "I hope some of the things I do on the ice could be considered art, but when it comes to sketching and stuff, ah, no! We're really selling celebrity. Hopefully, someone pulls out a wallet and donates."

The work may not look professional "but it shows the personality of heroes that normally isn't apparent," Steven Petroff said.

So the Argos' Chuck Winters paints a football with his mantra: Life, Opportunity, Value, Equality -- and it all starts from the letters for love.

"I saw him playing football and he looks big and mean," Sara Petroff said. "Then he shows up with his daughters and they're such cuties."

Winters is called lots of things on a football field but one of them never has been "Cutie."

Shulman, meanwhile, found himself at the kitchen table in his Toronto home between his network gigs in a dozen U.S. cities.

"I can barely draw a straight line," he said. "The most difficult part was coming up with a concept."

He decided on a baseball diamond "in tribute to Tom Cheek and his Touch 'Em All Joe call. My five-year-old is sitting on my lap saying: 'Daddy, can I help? Daddy, can I help?' And, I wanted to let him but, ahhh, he is five ... I let Ben paint the middle of the outfield and I did closer to the lines."

In the world of abstract expressionism, it ranks somewhere behind Jackson Pollock. But, as fridge art, Shulman figures it's some of his best work.

Olympian Sami Jo Small paints herself on a goalie stick. Steve Nash paints happy faces and handprints on a basketball. Sittler paints his career on hockey pucks.

None of these will get a million bucks at Sotheby's art auction but Steve Petroff said, "People have a chance to own a special piece created by one of their heroes. An art piece as opposed to a memento like the usual signed shirt or photo."

Who knew Argos kicker Noel Prefontaine once considered art school, or that the head-bangers Talbot hung with were as likely to be in a band as a football team?

"My friends have always been artistic," Talbot said. "In high school, I hung with the musicians. I had long hair down to my shoulders,"

Talbot's wife, Melanie, is a fashion designer with her own label, Common Cloth. He formed Killer Art two years ago to put on art shows featuring new Toronto artists.

"I was actually excited about doing this," Talbot said.

He created a canvas with an Argonaut running rampant over an ethereal background and, he says, sports and art might not be such odd bedfellows.

"Football is war - blood, sweat, tears," he said. "It is also poetry in motion. At a base level, it doesn't look like football and art are on the same wavelength but being an athlete is like being an artist. You have to hone your craft, sacrifice things like summer jobs to be the best. As an athlete you are a starving artist. There are similarities in lifestyle."

The gallery mailed supplies to most of the athletes who completed the work and sent it back.

"We did have one painting day here with the Argos," Sara Petroff said, "It was interesting to see these big, burly guys sitting around a table painting. Mike Fletcher sat for the longest time in front of this blank football. He stared it down, then very quietly picked up his brushes and painted his life story from the Cripps and Bloods in Compton, Calif., to sports and Toronto."

So, what did the Argonauts think of it all?

"One of them said, 'This is fun. We should do this instead of bowling or poker,'" Sara said. "But I think he was joking."

Next thing you know they'll be turning the clubhouse TV to PBS and having their post-game meals on doilies.