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Energy was a theme in many works. So was love, which was brought in abundance by Donna Dowless, who’s officially known throughout the Orlando art community as the city’s Ambassador of Love. A former senior vice president at Ticketmaster for 18 years in Orlando, Dowless is familiar with the value art can serve inside a monstrous glass and concrete structure.
“It enhances the whole experience of coming out to the event,” Dowless said by phone from her Orlando residence. “That whole surprise of seeing a piece of art on a wall or seeing a sculpture or seeing a wall covered in bright colors…people enjoy that.”
Four pieces round out her contribution – Love Grows (slide 11) and Sky High Love I, II and III (slide 18). All are mixed media on paper on board. The pieces share a number of characteristics; they’re blue and contain numerous stars and circles with most objects in the shape of hearts. Blue was chosen not so much for its connection to the Magic’s primary color but for its peaceful nature.
The circles are a reflection of movement – of basketball and more. “The circles that I work with represent movement of the game, movement of the industry, movement of the people coming in and out [of the arena], and the excitement of loving and being in the venue for live sports and entertainment,” Dowless said.
A fourth Orlando-based artist who spoke with SLAMonline, Ivaldo Robles, finds his artistic inspiration in music. Robles completed four glass and canvas works, including the 5′ x 7′, saxophone-influenced Aspirational Celestial (slide 3). Materials used on his pieces include oil-based paint and water-based lacquer that he mixed with paint to create a translucent effect and to get more “dimension through colors,” as he wrote in an email message.
Robles said that jazz serves a prominent role in his work. He explained that he’ll begin to listen to music before he paints and, as only an artist could do intuitively, let the music take him through the piece. In other words, he feels the painting through his music. Ultimately, he wants to hear the music by observing his painting. Robles offered an example of that through one of his Amway pieces.
“For the Vibraciones Magicas piece (slide 15), I decided to give a touch of the Magic’s star by using the idea of shape and color to represent a guitar,” Robles wrote in an email. “It is also made of geometric shapes which have deep dimension and which give the illusion of buildings.”
Speca discovered Robles after running across his website at an Orlando gallery. She was taken by his work and invited him to join her group for Amway Center. “I hope something wonderful happens to his career because he was such a neat spirit,” Speca said.
Much of the appreciation Speca has for the artists’ work is returned to her from them. The five artists who spoke with SLAMonline repeatedly expressed their gratitude to Speca for having been chosen to have their work displayed at Amway Center. Dowless explained it most succinctly. “She knows how to listen to the client to tell the story that the client is trying to tell.”
Art’s role in sports venues
For the artists, there may be no better public forum to have their work showcased than a sports stadium, arena or ballpark. Tens of thousands of fans trek through these facilities up to hundreds of times per year, whereas a local city museum may receive only a couple thousand people per day.
Ironically, Amway Center’s artwork was to be the center of the NBA universe for the 2011-12 season. In addition to Magic home games, the arena was the selected venue to host the 2012 NBA All-Star Game. All NBA-related events at Amway are now up in the air as the league continues its work stoppage. That’s an isolated event, however.
Sports venues continue to be a receptive area for art because of their expansive nature, their rough edges and surfaces which can be softened with colorful paintings, sculptures and more as well as people’s inherent interest in the subject.
“Art is not just for people who go to museums,” said Jack Becker, an executive director at the Public Art Review in Minneapolis. “Museums have this aura about them – elitist. [The perception is] you have to know something about art if you’re going to go there and be able to appreciate it. But street art is everywhere now.”
Indeed, the perception of what art is changes from person to person. Art’s definition surely is morphed into various theories and philosophies. But if it’s going to be in a sports venue, it needs context, Becker said. That’s where the connection is drawn between the venue and the reason that person is at the venue. That’s how people can develop an emotional tie to whatever piece of art at which they’re looking.
To accomplish the effect that Speca wants for each facility, she often moves through the space even at its most basic levels of construction. Forget looking at blueprints, she will say. Get into the space and pay attention to scale, lighting and surfaces. That’s how she develops her initial thoughts for a space, a mentality that she’s utilizing as she outlines her plan for artwork at the Florida Marlins’ new ballpark, which is set to open in April 2012.
“You got to walk through the space,” Speca said. “The walls come to life and they speak to you.”
And the walls at Amway Center are littered with references to the Orlando Magic, past and present, to the city of Orlando, past and present and to the objects and landscapes that anyone throughout the world can identify with Florida. Sports stadiums, arenas and ballparks constantly evolve in so many ways. Art is just one facet of their evolution but it’s one which can make a community feel a little more connected to the place they call home.
All images provided by Sports and The Arts.
