RAHEEM RUNS EVERYWHERE

For the 10th work in the YaniMade series, to celebrate my childhood team, the 49ers, and their path to the Super Bowl in 2020, I decided to go for it and attempt to execute a concept that had been floating around my head since December, under a tight deadline. Because so much of YaniMade the brand has been R&D energy invested in creating an innovative professional apparel brand, and laboring over details of the original artwork to fit a specific outcome for the sake of a final retail product, (in other words, investing now while keeping faith in the big picture, a successful career later), the release timing of my work has often been subject to the apparel manufacturers and not my own. It can be both rewarding and extremely challenging, however I’m reminded during difficult times what is the heart of this pursuit, my creative inspiration, the original artwork. In this case, it meant challenging myself with a deadline just to be timely for a specific event for once (Super Bowl), with no expectations, no shirt templates, no production challenges looming. I got to work the day after the NFC championship game on a pastel drawing of Raheem Mostert. He quickly became my favorite player on the team, as a surfer and track star, who bounced around the NFL, being cut by 7 teams and persevering to finally shine with the ‘9ers. As a kid, I watched my dad surf in Santa Cruz, long before it was the popular sport it is today, and I spent many hours as a young kid drawing waves, surfers riding waves, as well as sports players, like the 49ers, and later learning to surf with my dad at the same spot on East Cliff, while attending UC Santa Cruz. In looking for the old surfing and 49ers childhood drawings the day after completing the Mostert pastel drawing, “Raheem Runs Everywhere” (20” x 26” pastel on Senellier La Carte sanded paper), I found a pencil sketch on a small note pad size paper I did at age 7 (1990), a Chiefs vs 49ers helmet rendering with some abstract numbers on it! And this was 3-4 years before Joe Montana joined KC! Some kind of prophetic foreshadowing? I can’t say I picked the winner correctly however :)

For this pastel piece, I chose a landscape composition, depicting Mostert surfing the wave as a running back, carrying the ball, while creating depth of field with the island shore background. I inverted the road white jersey to home red, and did my best to realistically show him coming out of a barrel, hinting at his blazing speed, slightly outrunning the break of the wave, while adding realistic colored shadows of his uniform reflecting off the blue water. Professionally photographed 1 day before Super Bowl LIV, I have to say this project was a success. As of November 2020, It is now professionally framed under museum glass (non reflective/glare). *Note, the reflection in the framed photo is caused by the phone camera, not the room lighting.