Marketing Man Turns Profitable Painter
Chambers' art of prominent sports figures brings thousands of dollars
Last updated Saturday, June 14, 2008 5:56 PM CDT in News
By Lana F. Flowers
The Morning News
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ROGERS - Dell Chambers was 9 or 10 years old when he began drawing heroes of the day, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Now, the 28-year-old graphic and marketing materials designer spends more than 100 hours painting grown ups' sports idols, such as former Razorback Darren McFadden.
The McFadden piece features a hand-illustration of a Razorback pig staring over McFadden's right shoulder, with McFadden in the tuck and run position and a football between his elbow and forearm.
McFadden's torso is twisted slightly and his other arm is outstretched, as if to keep an invisible opposing tackle at bay. The rippling of the Razorbacks football jersey implies a distinct run, even though the player's legs are not in the painting.
The work will be sold at a live auction Aug. 22 at a Colors of Hope benefit at the Embassy Suites in Rogers. Painting proceeds will benefit the Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock and its planned Northwest Arkansas satellite campus in Lowell, Chambers said.
The McFadden piece is the 10th or 11th painting Chambers has done since he started the hobby three years ago.
He declined to say how much previous paintings, such as one of former University of Oklahoma safety Roy Williams, fetched.
"You can pull in a good several thousand dollars," Chambers said.
He does the sports paintings and illustrations to wind down from his day job as marketing materials designer for The Retail Zone of Rogers. The firm designs posters, coupons, print advertisements and other promotional materials for M&Ms, Mars bars, Banquet frozen meals, Dove chocolates and others.
But when he's not drawing what his corporate clients want to use on their candy packaging or in coupon inserts, Chambers draws heroes adults admire, including sports figures. The McFadden piece took more than 100 hours to complete, Chambers said, and is done with acrylics on canvas.
Chambers starts with an idea in his head that he roughly sketches with pencil and paper. He then searches for icons, images or other items that represent the person he's painting or aspects of his or her personality.
He then blends all those elements into a painting, and might add words, such as "DMAC" at the bottom of the McFadden work, or scratch paints or blend in items to create texture.
Steve Collins, Wal-Mart snack team leader for Mars US, said he first talked to Chambers through work, then heard he also painted sports figures.
Collins is co-chairman of the Color of Hope charity galas and asked Chambers if he'd paint something for the children's hospital charity. That's when the McFadden piece came to life.
"I could not believe the detail. It looked like it was an actual picture, not a painting, the way the jersey flows, the shading, the texturing," Collins said.
He also declined to speculate how much the piece might raise at auction.
"Already, there are several people interested in it," Collins said.
Both Chambers and Collins said they and others are contacting McFadden, who may autograph the painting before the August auction.
The issue is working around the training schedule of the former Razorback and current Oakland Raiders running back.
Web Watch
Darren McFadden
www.darrenmcfadden.org
McFadden rushed for 4,590 yards on 785 attempts, averaging 5.8 yards. He scored 44 touchdowns during his football career at the University of Arkansas.
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