Bates, Boston, National League, from the White Border series (T206) for the American Tobacco Company 1909 - 1911

This baseball card of Bates, Boston, National League, was one of many made for the American Tobacco Company, and is now hanging out at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s printed with such a light touch, like a watercolor. I can imagine how the image came into being, emerging through the layering of colors, from the pale sky blending into a yellow horizon, to the green field and the player himself. He is getting ready to hit. You almost feel like you’re in the stadium. I can imagine what it might have been like to make this. What were they thinking when they made it? There's a conversation across time happening between artists, and here the company, and it is kind of inspiring. For me, painting embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.