Will Johnson's Baseball Paintings

The lovely ladies at IF+D brought a little slice of Americana into my life this thursday night and officially ushered in spring, as far as I'm concerned. The prolific, multi-talented, and part-time Austin resident, Will Johnson finally showed his baseball paintings IN Austin. You may know Mr. Johnson from one of his many Americana oriented music projects. Mr. Johnson fronts the feedback-friendly band Centro-matic, as well as the gentler South San Gabriel, in addition to recording and touring under his own name. Most recently Conor Oberst, Yim Yames, Mike Mogis, and M. Ward were wise enough to realize they better include Will to fully deliver on the promise of their collective name, and had Mr. Johnson play drums and do a bit of singing on their Monsters of Folk tour. But that's enough about music, Thursday was about art! and baseball. and hot dogs. and cold beer.... and maybe even furniture.

Mr. Johnson's paintings struck a chord with me on many levels. The paintings depict primarily Negro League players, and baseball personalities that endured other unfair challenges during their careers. Clearly informed by American folk-art, pop art, and the rich tradition of outsider art so prevalent in these southern states, Mr. Johnson's paintings visually depict these heroes and anti-heroes in broad, iconic strokes. Coupled with these portraits are painted texts that apply more specific information to the subjects, sometimes telling a story, other times including a short quote that's particularly revealing of the subjects story. Being a fan of baseball, under-dogs, and this style of art; I thoroughly enjoyed the show. It didn't hurt that in between gawking at the paintings and grabbing a fresh PBR out of the ice-stocked kiddie pool, IF+D supplied us with free hotdog's from Frank and beautiful and comfortable couches to sit on from Blu Dot. I left with this song in my head that I remember my dad singing over and over again in the springtimes of my childhood. I never knew where it came from until this event caused me to look it up.