Art is almost always personal to the artist who created it, regardless of its format. Whether it is a painting, sculpture, drawing, song, poem, article, book, or invention, the creative person who “gave it life” usually had or has a personal connection to it.
Most certainly it flows from their consciousness, their environment, or life experiences. Sometimes from their triumphs or their struggles. But most assuredly, from their vision of what “can be” but has never existed before. True creatives have a passion for making things exist that others have not done; and sometimes, never even imagined as a possibility.
Andra Douglas, whose artwork is exhibited through Aug. 16 in the “Black & Blue” show at LeMoyne Arts, fits the description of a true creative.
Douglas’ art is based on her life experiences; especially her struggles. And not just her struggles; but the combined struggles of hundreds of women athletes who endured being blocked from playing a sport they had a yearning to be involved in. Professional football.
Art and struggles
Barred from playing on her high school football team because she was a girl, Douglas joined a flag football team in college. Later, she joined a flag football team in Long Island, New York, and began her professional football career playing with that team — the Long Island Sharks. The team converted to a tackle team in 1999 and won their first challenge in December 1999.
Douglas bought the team in 1999, and as a team owner and a player, she saw both sides of the struggle. She and the other players “incurred bruises on and off the field. Simply for wanting to play the game,” she said. Everybody realized “we were breaking all these societal norms.”
The players were constantly “criticized and ridiculed,” she said. With comments like, “You don’t belong here. This is a man’s game,” and similar remarks that were always meant to cut deeply and discourage them from playing the sport they loved.
As football players, they carried their sore bodies back to their 9-to-5 jobs after the games. There were “no NFL salaries,” she said. “They (female football players) pay to play. They risk everything. If they get hurt…and they need that body part” for their full-time job, “then their jobs may be on-the-line. And many have children.”
Love of the game
To Douglas, those bruises had many meanings, “so that became my focus,” she said, for both her art and the book she wrote about her experiences playing football. Both the book and her exhibition are titled “Black & Blue” — which represent the team colors of the Sharks female football team — and the constant bruises they all received — on their bodies and their psyche.
But in spite of all the pain and animosity, there were major successes. Something no one can take away from her or any of the almost 900 players, coaches, and staff members who gave it their all for the love of the game — every time they went on the field for practice, a scheduled game, or a championship game during those 20 years the team competed (1999 to 2018).
Karen Mulligan, former quarterback of the New York Sharks Women’s Tackle Football team, said, “I was a rookie in 2003, which is when I met Andra. When I first started, it was just a way to continue my athletic (desire). I didn’t think of it like that (making history). I understand that I was at the beginning of it. I was on the first USA tackle team.”
Before seeing articles about the New York Sharks Women’s Tackle Football, the team’s former quarterback coach, Fabian Baez, said, “I wasn’t familiar with women’s football before I saw the press on them, and reached out to Andra in 2012. I already knew history was being made by the team. You can’t write any story on women’s football; it has to include the New York Sharks. The Sharks were doing it in 1999/2000. They started with tackle, but the Sharks were doing it way back.”
Making history
Their record includes 10 division titles, five East Coast Conference titles, two national championships, and an international championship. In fact, they never had a losing season.
For all they endured and all their successes, one of their most distinguished honors came in 2008 when the New York Sharks became the first Women’s Tackle Football Team featured in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Illinois. The team is featured in the Women’s Hall of Fame, which showcases the Sharks’ 20 years of women’s football history.
But the art and the football all lead back to the little girl who loved art; the teenage girl who wasn’t allowed to play high school football, so she played volleyball, softball, and golf; and took art classes. The young lady who minored in photography at college, earned a communications design degree from Florida State University in Tallahassee, and a Master’s in Communications Design from Pratt Institute, NYC.
The art and the desire for football led to jobs as an art director and a vice president of creative in New York City. Which led to consulting work for major retail and entertainment corporations. Which led to the kind of football Douglas had always wanted to play.
And when football had thoroughly entrenched itself in her life, she circled back to oil painting and later to photography; a talent that won her an award for high school yearbook photography. Combining her loves, and finding that vital energy she needed to feel fulfilled. And others feel it, too.
“This exhibit is about overcoming obstacles, mentally and physically,” said LeMoyne Art Curator Isabella Al-Sharif. “I believe this is something our community really needs, and I’m honored to curate this exhibit that will hopefully inspire the community to view it and overcome any obstacles they may face.”
Arts Philanthropist and former LeMoyne Art Gallery Board Member, Katee Tully said, “I’ve always believed art makes children powerful. And sports makes women of any age powerful. And I see this as an overlay of what it means to be strong. And love that the exhibit itself will be interactive and women of any age can express what it means to them to have been involved in sports.”
And now, the art and the football all lead Douglas’ creative loves here. To this art exhibition which combines her two loves. And shares them with you.
If you go
What: “Black & Blue” by Andra Douglas
When: Through Aug. 16 | Tuesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: LeMoyne Arts, 125 North Gadsden St.
Cost: Free to members; $5; visit lemoyne.org
Priscilla Hawkins is a guest writer for the Council on Culture & Arts (COCA) and founder & creative director of the Black History Alliance. Celebrating its 40th anniversary, COCA is the capital area’s umbrella agency for arts and culture (tallahasseearts.org).
