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About the Artist Roanoke Times Profile
About the Artist Roanoke Times Profile
Artist drawn to Tech and its football stars
| Artist drawn to Tech and its football stars |
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Eight players have signed artwork of Lane Stadium, and one print will be auctioned to help the Hokie Spirit fund.BLACKSBURG -- Michael Vick was going to the Super Bowl. Before the NFL suspension, before the guilty plea and before Bad Newz Kennels became a household name, Vick told Rocky Mount artist Brian Hart that he was going to "show everybody" and lead the Atlanta Falcons to the Super Bowl.Hart didn't sense arrogance when he visited the quarterback's Hampton Roads home early this summer, a few weeks before dogfighting charges placed Vick in the national spotlight and eventually a Richmond courtroom. Vick was just eager for the season to start, Hart said. And he was meeting with Hart for the right reasons. The quarterback was one of eight Hokie football legends who signed prints of Hart's pen-and-ink drawings of Lane Stadium and the banners that honor its greatest players. One of those autographed copies is being auctioned to raise money for the Hokie Spirit Scholarship Fund. The auction ends at 11 a.m. Saturday, an hour before Tech's game against North Carolina. "Like a lot of people -- most people -- I wanted to do something to give, do something to help" in the wake of the April 16 shootings that left 33 people dead, Hart said. And he said the players were cooperative during his two-month crusade this summer to collect autographs. Vick was no exception. He signed the prints for free -- as did all the players -- and he even offered to take Hart fishing on the Chesapeake Bay that day. Rain ruined their plans. "He wants me to teach him how to fly fish, and in return I'm going to go striper fishing on the bay," Hart said. "He didn't know who I was. He knew what it was about a little bit. But that was all he needed was to know he was doing something for the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund." With the help of Tech's athletic department, Hart collected autographs from all of the people whose names adorn Lane Stadium's banners with the exception of the late Frank Loria. He traveled to Ohio to get the autograph of Corey Moore, who was working with underprivileged children through a program at Ohio State. Others, such as Coach Frank Beamer, weren't so hard to find. Hart, 43, has been making a living off of his pen-and-ink drawings of college campuses for about eight years. His father, Joseph Hart, was president of Ferrum College from 1971 to 1986. Brian Hart graduated from the school with a fine arts degree in 1985. He also attended Tech in the late 1990s to study architecture. But his art career took off with a sketch of Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium in 2000 and he never completed his second degree. Although it took Hart awhile to find his calling, he said it's obvious now that it's what he was meant to do. "I grew up on a college campus. I love artwork. I studied architecture. So here I am," he said. "I'm an artist drawing architectural drawings of college campuses." A big Ferrum football fan, Hart grew up during the heyday of legendary Ferrum Coach Hank Norton and didn't pay much attention to Hokie football. But he's developed friendships with the Tech football staff through his artwork. He had several Hokie defensive greats and defensive coordinator Bud Foster sign a drawing he made of the team's famous lunch pail.  Hart had been thinking of doing the "Legends of Lane" piece before April 16. He went to work on it almost immediately after the tragedy, superimposing sketches of each banner around a sketch he'd already done of the stadium. The drawings of the banners took a couple of days each to complete and are tinted with watercolor wash.Each of the eight Hokie legends signed 15 prints except for Bruce Smith, who signed only four. When asked why Smith didn't sign all 15, Hart said, "he just wasn't willing to." One of the four prints will be displayed in Tech's athletic center. Hart gave another to Beamer, is keeping the third for himself and is auctioning the fourth for the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund. The other prints, minus the Smith signature, can be purchased on Hart's Web site, buycollegeart.com. As of Thursday afternoon, the high bid for the auction print was $5,000. Hart said he hopes the bidding goes up to $6,000 or $7,000. He doesn't know if the Vick signature will affect the value of the print. The former Hokie star faces up to five years in prison and added a positive marijuana test to his troubles Wednesday. But Hart said if he had to do it all over again he'd still include the Vick banner and signature in the piece. "It has to have Michael Vick's autograph on there. It'd be incomplete without it," he said. "He's made some bad decisions, and he's going to pay for them, and I hope he gets a second chance." |
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