Scott Radley: From McMaster to LeBron’s house: This Dundas native’s art has found a home in the basketball legend’s dining room
When LeBron James sent out an Instagram post on Sunday, all 84 million of his followers saw a lovely photo of his family sitting around his dining room table celebrating Mother's Day.
All 84 million minus one.
Dundas native and former McMaster football player Kareem-Anthony Ferreira was looking less at the people in the shot and more at what was behind them on the wall.
The painting. The one he painted right here in Hamilton.
I didn't post it on social media (before)," the 32-year-old says of the fact that James had bought his piece. Mostly because I couldn't really prove it."
He can now.
Growing up around here as the son of an artist, he always had an interest in that world. But once he got to high school at Westdale, he was introduced to football and discovered a love for that, too.
Eventually he ended up at Mac where he took fine art while playing on the defensive line on the Vanier Cup championship team. If you think that sounds like an unusual combination of artistic grace and athletic power, you'd be right.
There weren't many artists on the football team. And having a six-foot-tall, 285-pound lineman in his academic program, well, that drew a suspicious eye a few times.
The art world was always hesitant to have a jock in its midst," he laughs.
But he loved both. So he poured himself into both. And was exceptional at both. To the point that Marauders head coach Stef Ptaszek once asked him for a drawing that could be turned into a tattoo. Something combining football and Canadiana.
You can now find it etched on the coach's left calf.
Eventually, football ended, though. And after a brief respite from painting while he went to teachers' college, he found his way back. And last summer, he started working on a piece in a space he'd carved out in a Hamilton church.
It was huge. More than 11-feet-by-six-feet. Oils and mixed media on canvas. Took almost two months to finish. Like many of his works, it involved the story of immigrants and people of colour and their lives. If you look closely at the promotional video the Hamilton Tiger-Cats created for the upcoming Grey Cup, you can see him working on it.
Dinner At Auntie Nicole's House," he called it. Yes, he has an Aunt Nicole. She's in there. So's his Aunt Andrea. They're still in Trinidad where his parents came from, but in this piece they're front and centre.
Last summer, an art gallery on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles that knows of him picked him up and then put this painting on display at an art fair in December. Which is where LeBron apparently saw it. And bought it.
Obviously I was excited," Ferreira says.
He'd grown up watching the basketball star. He'd admired him for his on-court and off-court work even as the current Laker and former Cavalier had broken the hearts of Toronto Raptors fans, including his - I still have my grudges," he quips - more than a few times.
He still hasn't met James or spoken with him. But the fact that the legend was buying his piece? That was amazing. Beyond amazing.
Even so, he told only a few close friends about the LeBron connection. Including his aunts.
My Aunt Nicole was very happy," he says.
And Andrea?
My Aunt Andrea," he says, starting to laugh. Her response was, Who's that?'"
But on Mother's Day when the post came out, she was just about the only one asking that question. Everyone else seemed to realize the significance of what was going on. Ferreira's work had landed in the perfect place.
Which was a bit of a surprise even to him. Because until he saw the photo, he hadn't known exactly where it had gone or been hung.
Honestly," he says, I couldn't have asked for a better shot."
What comes now is anyone's guess. This could launch his career into places he never imagined. This could open doors and create opportunities he never considered.
Ferreira says he won't change anything to take advantage or to become more commercial. He won't be hunting down celebrities to move more pieces. He's going to create what he believes in and if it sells, great.
He's got a virtual show coming up at the Towards Gallery in Toronto. After that, who knows?
As for that tattoo he sketched, now that he's an artist to the stars, should Ptaszek be expecting a bill commensurate with his surging value?
No," he laughs. I might just come for a Mac sweatshirt."
Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com