Terry Davis Puts Art Into the Galaxy
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Kick Art
The first 2,500 people who enter The Home Depot Center on the campus of California State University at Dominguez Hills to watch the Los Angeles Galaxy (0-0-1) take on FC Dallas (0-0-1) on Thursday, April 12, will get to kick start his or her season at the stadium in style with artistic t-shirts designed by Terry Davis.
“The definition of art has opened up quite a bit,” said Davis, 38. “You have to use the term loosely to call a t-shirt logo a piece of art, but it still derives from something you could logically call art.”
A Los Angeles residence since he came out to attend film school at the American Film Institute in 1995, Davis was selected to be the club’s official artist for the 2007 season. In his role with the club, Davis will design three special, limited edition t-shirts to celebrate the team’s 12th season.
Asked by a friend who also hails from Detroit, Galaxy President and General Manager Alexi Lalas, to make artwork that could somehow be used as LA Galaxy merchandise, Davis found the club’s position a test of sorts.
“It was kind of an interesting challenge to come up with something that wasn’t your typical uniform-derived artwork or logo,” said Davis, who has been commissioned to produce original artworks for the Mandalay Bay Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, the Bank of Madrid, Universal Studios, the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City and many other locations.
Interconnecting art and the City of Los Angeles into the spirit of the LA Galaxy, the t-shirts are based upon original paintings that Davis has created in his Manhattan Beach studio. As various fans will notice upon close inspection, Davis applied elements of a few regional sporting subcultures, his artistic impulses, and the passion and tradition of the L.A. Galaxy.
Taking a painterly approach, “I took inspiration from the local skate and surf culture that deal with their merchandizing and logo and sort of redesigned,” said Davis. “I saw inspiration more from the art world than the soccer world, and then combined the two. Basically they’re a re-concept-ing of the logo.”
The first of the three t-shirts will be available on Thursday, April 12. Only a limited number of t-shirts will be produced and distributed. Davis’ second original design will be unveiled to the public two months later on June 2, 2007, prior to the Galaxy’s game against D.C. United. The third and final Terry Davis designed t-shirt will be given out on Sept. 8, 2007, when L.A. hosts the Colorado Rapids.
Since he considered his audience quite a bit while working on the art, Davis is one artist who wants his work to be widely received.
“That’s absolutely paramount,” he said. “When it’s something I’m contracted to do I think about who will be viewing, and with public space I think a lot about what story are audiences going to derive from this image. The challenge and goal was to create something unusual, less traditional.”
Not only was the art to be less traditional, but also as a filmmaker and painter for years Davis realized wearable art differed from the other mediums he worked in. People are going to wear his art – the image is going to stretch according to who is wearing the shirt -- people will spill food on it.
“Well, that’s true,” laughed Davis. “Simplification is the key. It’s more of a design than artwork, although I did start with a piece of art knowing that it would end up a design changing on an individual basis with the stretching and so forth and to be looked and be immediately identifiable; whereas with a piece of art on the wall, you expect more people to spend more time in front of the work.”
For more information on the Los Angeles Galaxy, call 1-877-3GALAXY or log onto www.lagalaxy.com.
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