The inspiration for our baseball teams: Fiorentino Calle Kreindler Wilkinson
James Fiorentino
James Fiorentino, a rising star among sports artists, was born in Somerset, New Jersey, in 1977. His commitment to creating sports art is the result of his love for the two fields. As an artist, Fiorentino showed a unique ability in art as early as three years old, and he grew up admiring the famed American illustrator, Norman Rockwell. As an athlete, he played shortstop for Drew University's baseball team.
Fiorentino began painting portraits of baseball stars as a way to collect autographs from players at trading card shows. Soon after, he embarked on a prolific artistic career, and before even finishing college, many of his paintings had been converted into trading cards, magazine covers, and lithographs, and had been featured in museums and halls of fame.
In 1993, he became the youngest artist to have a work hanging in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York -- a watercolor portrait of Reggie Jackson. Later, his collage of Roberto Clemente was added to the Hall's permanent collection.
Paul Calle
Best known for his skill with pencil in detailed drawings of western art subjects, especially mountain men during the fur trade era, Paul Calle was born in New York City.
In 1947, he attended Pratt Institute at age 19 and was much taken with the figure work of Thomas Hart Benton. He also learned woodcut techniques from Lynd Ward and the effect of sinewy lines from Ben Shahn. Working in black and white until he became a painter of western subjects, he was an illustrator for McCalls, The Saturday Evening Post, National Geographic, and Fortune.
He became official artist of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Fine Art Program and designed the "First Man on the Moon" stamp for the United States Postal Service. He also illustrated for the Department of the Interior, which led to many western paintings.
His technique is to create a buildup of lines to create his figures, creating a soft, air-like effect.
Graig Kreindler
Graig Kreindler, born in 1980, grew up in Rockland County, New York. In 2002, he graduated with Honors from the School of Visual Arts in New York City with a BFA in Illustration and received his Masters in Art Education from Lehman College.
His award-winning sports work has appeared in juried shows and museums nationwide, as well as having been featured in nationally distributed books, newspapers and magazines.
To Graig, no other sport embodies the relationship between generations and the sense of community like baseball. His goal is to portray the national pastime in an era when players were accessibly human, and the atmosphere of a cozy ballpark was just as important as what happened on the field. He is proud to act as a visual historian: recreating a history that he has never experienced, yet, like millions of fans, maintain a profound connection with.
David E Wilkinson
David Wilkinson is a New Jersey based artist with more than 16 years of professional experience. He attended The Hussian School of Art in Philadelphia for four years where he graduated with honors in 1994. In 1996 he accepted a position with Mattel, Inc. (Formerly TYCO Toys) where his creative versatility enabled him to work in a variety of areas from both product and package design to brand identity, as well as illustration. He went on to receive many company wide awards including Mattel's "Standing Ovation" for his innovative work on the Matchbox "Street Chess" line. In 1999 he achieved world wide exposure as a sports artist when Matchbox released the NBA collection of vehicles featuring his artwork. Since 2004 he has been working as a full time freelance artist where he has quickly built a diverse client list that includes some of the biggest names in the toy, entertainment, motion picture and sports industries.
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