Artwork
Artist Murray Henderson combines fine art and sports memorabilia to create unique, collectible paintings for athletes, collectors
Artist Murray Henderson's work encompasses many styles, from penciling, drawing and inking to airbrushing and painting, and ranging from realism to abstract.
His work is often described as a “cool piece of controlled chaos on canvas.” Henderson has a unique combination of natural talent and instinctive creativity.
The Canadian born artist has created works of countless athletes, musicians, celebrities and wildlife. Blending many styles to create his own, Henderson has made breathtaking pieces that incorporate sports memorabilia within his works of paint and paper, focusing on one-of-a-kind pieces of icons such as Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Wayne Gretzky, and even rapper Tupac Shakur.
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In this exclusive interview with SCD contributor Tony Reid, the talented artist talks about his rich history of works in sports, his one-of-a-kind pieces, and finishing a recent painting while sledding downhill in below freezing temperatures.
I know you use a number of different styles and techniques, but how would you describe your style of art?
“Well, I call it exact abstract. I used to do a lot of photorealism through an airbrush course that I took in North Carolina, that teaches actual photorealistic art. That's kind of where most of my stuff really started. I was doing that style, and then a mistake kind of happened and paint fell on a painting and it splattered, and that's when it all happened, when a friend of mine said, ‘Now that's art. That should be a collectible piece right there. I'd buy it.’ So, I started splashing and doing different things on it. I guess you could say it's in between a Leroy Neiman and Jackson Pollock kind of thing. I guess the photorealism, or as close to realism as I can get on most of the subjects, is the thing that I know people love seeing, the likeness, and then the rest of it's fun and abstract, so as I say, exact abstract, that's kind of what I call it myself.”
Where do you find inspiration for each piece?
“Well yeah, it's very weird, because I collected cards as a kid growing up. I collected comic books, I watched all the famous Star Trek movies, the Star Wars movies, so I've always been into pop culture growing up through the ’70s and early ’80s and I guess just thinking back and remembering back to those days, all my passions start coming back to me, like I'm working on one now. It's kind of funny, it's a Matisse, like the famous artist [Henri] Matisse, it's the Moulin Rouge, that I did as a commissioned piece, but I'm adding my own, it's my own self-portrait. I have myself in the corner where the green face lady is, and I have the Rat Pack, I have Charlie Chaplin, and I got Spider-Man, and I got a glass of milk spilling over all the highest valued trading cards in the world. It's sort of something crazy, but it's my own thing.
“Sometimes when I'm not doing a commissioned piece, I just come up with these crazy ideas and I think, that would be cool in someone's house, so let's see what it turns out like. And if I don't like it, I just roll it up and I put it aside for a while. That's what I tend to do. I am working on five to ten pieces at a time, and the thing is, if I kind of see it and I don't like what I see for a while, I'll roll it up and I'll just put a little note on it saying this is what it is, and I do always go back to them, though. When you're working on so many, it's like, the inspiration kind of leaves you in the middle of it, and you think, I don't like that anymore, but it really helps when you start reading stories about how Pokémon is so huge and how comic books are really making a big comeback again, and sports magazines, tickets, everything like that. That all gives me inspiration, so I'm always thinking, ‘OK, what would a collector want in their house?’
“That's how I think of it, what would someone want in their house, not just a picture of Babe Ruth hitting a baseball, maybe they want something different, like maybe something different in his life, or that's kind of what I come up with. And then I talk to all my commission, the people who commission me, and I explain it to them that way. I say, I don't mind doing a family portrait, but it's not going to be a normal family sitting in a spot in front of a fireplace. I'm going to do it in my style. Give me your life story, and I'll make your life story pop on a canvas. I've done that for a few different people who have commissioned me, and I find that that makes it a little different. I'm a little different that way, where, instead of just a family photo, it's something that family does together, or that they have done as a family throughout their lives. Inspiration comes in all forms.”
We met at The National in Cleveland and I saw some of your work firsthand. My favorite piece was the Michael Jordan with the original 1985 Nike Air Jordans, the piece with the first shoe in it. Between that and the Kobe Bryant game-used sneaker piece and the Tupac-worn bandana, the way you incorporate not just art, but actual pieces of memorabilia is so spectacular. How long does it take to create a piece of that caliber?
“It does take a lot of research in a way, because that shoe piece, I took it from one of the original Nike ads, and, of course, I turn it into my own style and make it so it's the picture of Jordan. I'll paint him, but then the rest of it is my abstract style, and adding the actual shoe to it, it kind of makes it so it's not just a piece of art anymore, it's a piece of art with actual memorabilia in it and it's almost like a museum-level piece, because there's not a lot of places that you see actual 1985 Jordan shoes, and to have that on it, it preserves a special place in a collector's office or space.
“I love doing that kind of thing and you saw the big Jordan one with the actual autograph floor piece from the United Center. Now that took me a while to think which one I wanted to add that piece to, and now I do have two Jordans with actual autographed floors on them, which, when I think about a card with an autograph on it and it's going for a few million dollars and I see a piece that's like literally 80-by-4 feet, with an actual autographed piece of floor that's like a good-sized chunk—we're talking like a two-foot piece of floor that he actually played on with an autograph—I'm thinking some collector should have that hanging in their space. That's kind of what gives me the incentive to do these things.
“For instance, the Wayne Gretzky stick I used for that piece was lying on my manager's floor in his bedroom in storage. It was Gretzky's second career game-used hat-trick stick, and I said, ‘Paul, that should be in a museum, or why don't we add it to a piece of art?’ Then I went back and I did my research and I actually was lucky enough to see Gretzky in the ’80s play because I lived in Calgary and I was actually in the dressing room when they won the Stanley Cup in 1986 with Wayne Gretzky and all that. So I went back and I started researching, getting the pictures from that actual night, so I found the photo of him scoring one of the goals of his hat-trick against Greg Millen, who was a goalie who actually lived where I live now, in Peterborough, Ontario. … I took pictures from that season and created the piece that would fit the stick, and I think that is my favorite piece, because having that stick as part of a collection, to me, if I had the room, I'd probably have it up in my own house, but, unfortunately, it's a big piece.
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“I love doing that, incorporating things, because so many athletes that have played or they still play, they have so many things that they have that they don't really think of as memorabilia, it's just something they wore, right? And I say, well, a great way to make it so it's not just sitting under a bed in a box or something, let's add it to a piece of art, and that's how things have really kind of taken off. There's a lot of people that have that kind of memorabilia will ask me about commissions.”
I saw the video of Ray Lewis's emotional reaction to your piece featuring him. What's been the most fulfilling athlete reaction you've had over the course of your career?
“Well, we're heading to Orlando and I have an event with the entire Orlando Magic team. What we're doing is, we call it the Dream Collection, and that's what the Ray Lewis and the Griffin Brothers (NFL twins Shaquem and Shaquill Griffin) and everything is all focused around. Ryan Anderson is a retired basketball player, he was an All-Star, and him and I, we do these events with teams and players. We ask them, what's your favorite moment, or what's your favorite photo, or, you know, something that the player really wants to show off, and I actually paint it. The thing with this whole event is, the piece is covered. They do not see it. So, what we do at these events is, we actually have them, like the Griffin Brothers, actually put paint on the footballs and they spin the balls, throw the balls, spike the balls on my painting, where I leave it open so it's not showing the rest of the painting. I give them a section to actually create their own art on it. So, I'm collaborating with the actual athletes on these.
“Then, at the event, we actually unveil it to them. I did one of the two [Griffin Brothers] when they were hugging each other and the two of them actually sacked Aaron Rodgers. I put that into the painting and, I think it was Shaquille, ended up with tears, happy tears, and that, to me, was probably my favorite response. We get the hugs and we got photos of all of us around it and it's really touching because these guys, it really meant something to them to not only see the painting finished, but to actually contribute to the painting by throwing their own paint on it, too.
“That's what I'm doing with the Orlando Magic and I'm doing a full team one where they all take shots at the basket. We're actually attaching a basketball hoop to the painting, and of course, it's going to be covered so they don't see it, but the section that's open, they throw a ball with paint on it, it splatters, and each one of them is part of that painting. They actually helped me paint it, and then we unveil it. Yeah, it's something I know that's never been done before, and talk about a collaboration. That's for real, you know.”
When you bring a pro athlete to tears, I don't know that you can get a better reaction than that, right?
“Well, no. In Miami, I had my two Wayne Gretzky pieces there, the one we talked about a little earlier with the stick, and Janet Gretzky came into the gallery. She walked in and I said, ‘Do you know who that is?’ And she goes, ‘That's my husband.’ I said, ‘Well, I know that. I was just joking with you. What do you think?’ She just loved them, and I actually took the stick off the piece because it's removable, so I said, ‘This is Wayne's second career hat-trick stick.’ And she was looking at it and I got photos of her with it, posing with the stick, and she just looked at it and she goes, ‘Oh, yeah, this is right from Walter's basement. I recognize that, because Walter puts plaques on all Wayne's early sticks.’ It was really neat because she stood with me for probably 15, 20 minutes just going over the two paintings I had, and so I got some great photos of that and she really loved it.
“We did one with [NBA player] Duncan Robinson as well, same idea, and Duncan just loved it. He was able to do the same thing, throwing a basketball with paint on it at the canvas, and so those kind of things, to me, I love working with them, and it's not just me painting and saying, here's a painting I did of you. I like working directly with them where they pick a moment or tell me their favorite photos or their favorite team, or it could even be a shot of them on the bench or in the workout room. It's personal, and that's what I like about working with athletes.”
One recent piece caught my attention from a video you posted on social media. The Michael Jordan/Spike Lee original painting that you did on a sled ride in minus 23-degree weather. Can you share that story for us?
“I just love these videos and my wife and I watch a lot of police dogs or service dogs and the different views that they're getting on these. Then I started watching a lot of different comedy videos that get a lot of views and I thought, being a crazy Canuck, I'm going to do something that I don't think has ever been done. I'm going to pour some paint on the painting, I'm going to go out in freezing cold weather and slide down our hill and see what happens when snow hits everything. And I did it. My dog was running along with me in the video and I just had the whole space on the side of that painting that I needed to do something on it, and I thought, let's try that. Then I showed the final version of what it looked like. I think it looked kind of cool. I guess the ice and the snow and everything kind of moved the paint around a little bit and gave it a little bit of crystallization. It's different. It's unique. I can say I actually painted it in Canada in the snow.
“The reason I did the Spike Lee is because I really liked the commercials, the early Air Jordan commercials. That to me was so iconic. I actually saw Spike Lee at Fanatics Fest last year. I didn't get to talk to him, but I was hoping that he'd stop by because a few of the guys did stop by to talk to me and I was going to tell him about it. I had started that already. I just hadn't finished it. Hopefully one day he'll see it, or Michael will see some of these, too. It'd be nice.”
What is your next big project?
I hope I'm starting a whole new category in memorabilia-infused fine art. I hope that I start it with other artists too. I think this is something that could really explode the market. It's a whole new industry, I think. It's been kind of left for a while. Art being an investment and memorabilia being such a huge investment, why not combine the two? I think it's a new thing. I'm looking forward to the future.”
- To have your own memorabilia incorporated into a painting or to schedule a live art event, you can contact Murray at Mursart68@gmail.com, Murrayhendersonart.com or on social media at @murray_henderson
