Graham, St. Louis, American League, from the White Border series (T206) for the American Tobacco Company 1909 - 1911

This baseball card of Graham from St. Louis was made for the American Tobacco Company, and it’s a little gem in the White Border series. The colors are so contained; the yellow is like egg yolk, and the green, so smooth, really pops. I bet the artist wasn’t even thinking about high art. They were probably just trying to capture the essence of the game, this guy’s particular stance and his wind-up, but look at the way the colors and the simple shapes come together. The way the artist handled that baseball mitt looks, in its own way, like some of Philip Guston's chunky forms. It's pretty cool, right? What I love about painting and looking at art is how unexpected influences pop up, like a baseball card reminding me of a painter like Guston. Artists are always in conversation, whether they know it or not, pulling ideas from everywhere, mixing high and low. It just goes to show you that art is everywhere if you just look.