Street, Washington, American League, from the White Border series (T206) for the American Tobacco Company 1909 - 1911

This baseball card of Street, Washington, from the American Tobacco Company, is like a little window into another world. The way the colors are laid down – almost like coarse little pixels – gives it a really tactile feel. You can almost feel the texture of the paper and the ink. I love the area around the baseball glove. The paint is built up in layers and there's a sort of scumbling effect which describes the worn leather. You can almost feel the hours spent catching baseballs. It reminds me a bit of the work of Philip Guston, who also embraced a kind of rough-and-ready approach to painting. Both artists seem to be saying that it’s okay to be messy, to be imperfect, to let the process show. Ultimately, it’s the process that matters, the journey of discovery that leads to the final image.