Artist Samara Pearlstein Shifts Our Focus on Baseball Card Art on Display at iartcolony

Rockport Gallery, iartcolony has three very unique pieces that were tailored to honor Cape Ann specifically.

Owner/Artist, Jill Armstrong says,

“I believe there is an audience who would love to know these were created – and would love to see them – and at only $675 – maybe take one home.  One of our clients from Gloucester represented in Swampscott artist Samara Pearlstein’s art, played against Jeff Juden in highschool – got a hit off of him, during a two-hitter game.  Not that long ago.  And, I love the Stuffy McInnis Card – there must be an audience for them.”

Artist statement:

When considering Motif #1, it is impossible to not think about what it means to represent place.  Motif itself has been represented over and over again, but it’s as much about an iconic image of the North Shore and its associations as it is about the building itself.

The baseball cards represented here all belong to Major League Baseball players who were born on the North Shore.  With the figure removed from the baseball card, what is left are the aesthetic signifiers of a specific era, baseball’s relationship to design in that era, and a focus on place over person— a reversal of the usual role of a baseball card.

Each card also prominently features red as a design element, a selecting factor that serves as an additional nod to Motif, arguably the most famous use of red on the North Shore and in landscape painting.