My First Baseball Game… With an All Access Pass

I'd never been to a baseball game before.

So naturally, my first one involved an all access media pass, a sketchbook and absolutely no idea what I was doing.

While I was in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to collaborate with the Las Vegas Aviators and experience a game as one of their media guests.

Instead of arriving, finding a seat and watching the game from the grandstands, we were given all access passes that allowed us to move around the stadium and experience the game from completely different perspectives.

For someone seeing baseball for the first time, it was probably the best possible introduction.

Seeing Baseball With Fresh Eyes

I knew the basics of baseball, obviously, but I'd never actually experienced a game.

I didn't know what moments I was waiting for or what I was supposed to photograph.

So rather than going in with an idea of what I wanted to create, I just took everything in.

The players warming up, the uniforms, the movement, the crowd, the stadium itself and all the little things happening between plays.

That's something I've started to really enjoy about creating artwork from sports I've never experienced before.

I don't arrive already knowing what the important moments are supposed to be.

I get to discover them for myself.

And having the freedom to move around the stadium meant I could see the game from places I never would have experienced with a normal ticket.

Of Course, I Had to Draw Something

Watching wasn't going to be enough.

I'd brought my art supplies with me, so during the game I sat down and started creating a small artwork.

There's something I love about drawing while an event is actually happening around me.

It's completely different from sitting quietly in my studio afterwards. You're surrounded by the sounds, the people and the atmosphere that you're trying to capture.

By the end of the night, I'd created a little piece of that first baseball experience right there at the stadium.

And rather than bringing it home, I gifted the artwork to one of the Aviators players.

Then the tables were turned on me.

I was given a game ball, which the player signed for me.

So my artwork stayed in Vegas…

and the baseball came home to Australia.

I think that's a pretty fair trade.

More Than Just Watching a Game

That's what made the collaboration with the Aviators so much fun.

I wasn't there just to photograph something and leave.

They gave me the freedom to experience their world properly, and from there I could find my own way of creating something from it.

That's the kind of collaboration I love.

Put me somewhere I've never been before, give me the chance to explore it, and I'll usually find a story somewhere in there.

Sometimes that story becomes a sketch on the spot.

Sometimes it comes home with me and turns into a much larger artwork months later.

And sometimes it does both.

My first baseball game gave me plenty of ideas for what I could create next.

So while one little piece stayed behind in Las Vegas, I don't think I'm quite finished with baseball yet.