As this year’s MLB All Star week unfolds to national attention centered on Arlington, there’s a unique companion event featuring the work of one of our city’s own premier artists, Steve Moya.
Many will recognize Steve as the creator of Arlington’s “Best Outdoor Festival” that premiered in 2012 as Art On The Greene in the shadow of The Ballpark in Arlington and is now an annual event as the South Street Art Festival. It’s the longest-running and only fine art exhibit in the city.
Inspired by the 1995 Emmy Award-winning Ken Burns documentary series featuring the history of baseball, Steve launched his idea of creating a baseball art exhibit in 2018. Six years later, we all get to see the remarkable results of that brainstorm.
He explains, “When I was watching that documentary, I was intrigued with the history of the 1800s and early 1900s. There was something about the baseball players of that time that I felt would make for great subject matter.
“As a kid growing up playing baseball and even all the way up into my 40s, my love for the game made the thought of creating this exhibit even more exciting.”
The results of that ‘great subject matter’ has captured, up close and personal, the images of some of the greatest players from the history of America’s Game.
Seeing what, at first, may appear as vintage black and white photos, his work is truly exceptional. I asked Steve how he does that.
“When I create a portrait of someone, I always start with their eyes … to me, that is the most important part, then I work on completing the rest of their face. Once I am happy with the way their face has turned out, then I move on to the rest of drawing.”
Okay, so I then asked how long does that take?
“Most of the drawings take a couple of days to complete, if I was to work uninterrupted on them. Because I am usually working on 5 or 6 drawings at a time, I will get all the faces completed, then work on one for a bit, then switch to another one … doing this repeatedly until I’ve completed them. Then I start on a new group of drawings.”
He makes it seem like others could do that but his work is a definitive example of a one-of-a-kind result.
Steve has no plans to sell the images. “My goal is for The Art of Baseball to become a traveling exhibit that would go to every MLB city across the country.”
So, when and where will we all get to see these heroes of baseball portrayed by Steve? Glad you asked.
He gives the Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau, along with the city, credit for being “100 percent behind the exhibit, their help has been huge.”
It all unfolds in the lobby of the ACV Bureau’s office at Choctaw Stadium from July 13-17. Tickets are available on the event’s website, moyaartevents.com/art-of-
Richard Greene is a former mayor of Arlington.
