Boomer NW, Oregon Ducks, And Autzen

De’Anthony Returns

Great art needs a great stage.

The Mona Lisa runs 30″ X 21″. Small enough to hang on a bathroom wall. Or The Louvre.

Faberge eggs are big-bird-egg-sized packed with huge detail. But still small. Too small if you like big.

The jewel that is Oregon Duck football at Autzen Stadium is just the right size. Big enough to matter and packed with thrills.

The field frame, 100 yards X 50 yards, is just big enough to hold victory on Saturdays.

The Duck win over UCLA felt like a Renaissance effort, but it didn’t start that way. 

Tied 14-14 at the half, the game made no natural sense. It felt more Gothic, lacking realism.

Eventually the Duck O looked like Michelangelo’s unfinished statues showing human form emerging from stone. Almost there, just almost. They needed to chip away the rest of the rock to emerge like the famous David statue.

All the pieces were there, but no harmony. Yet the final score, 42-14, showed a giant stepping out of the marble.

Duck players/artists brought the hammer and chisel down on the Bruins in an unexpected way. Their offense gets credit for its surgical precision, but last Saturday the defense jack-hammered the Autzen Gallery.

Once the dust settled the critics spoke: Oregon moved to #2 in the BCS ranking.

Sports fans and art fans share common roots. The experienced art collector warns against buying art as an investment, or on someone’s suggestion. Boomer NW agrees.

They use the word love. Buy art you love. Look at it, hold it, cherish it. Be a part of it. Feel the passion.

They could be talking about Oregon Duck fans. Saturday’s 4 p.m. start allowed for cherishing the experience before kick-off. In their case ‘cherish’ means tailgating. Everyone feels the love.

While art fans swarm galleries for their next object affair fueled by wine and cheese, too often they wake up the next day with remorse. How can they get their new art out of the house without feeling like a one night stand? What will their friends think when they come to visit and it’s not there?

Sports fans don’t have the same problem, especially baby boomer fans. Their passion is fueled by other means.

They cruise from parking lot to parking lot with a beer in one hand and a grilled meat sandwich in the other. From one over-the-top-tailgater to the next before the game, they collect memories. The only remorse they wake up with happens after a loss.

Since the Autzen Gallery is full of winners, it doesn’t happen very often.

The final score against #12 UCLA was an artistic achievement. A 42-14 final after a halftime at 14-14 draws certain conclusions.

The great sportscaster Leonardo Da Vinci called Saturday’s game a study in  with thirty dark minutes in contrast to the bright final thirty. Color commentators Rembrandt and Caravaggio agreed.

Leo’s game wrap: “Their is no doubting the dominance of these Duck craftsmen. Their play today showed a group together in the face of challenging circumstances. There is no sfumato in their intentions, no soft lines blurring the first and second half.

“In broad strokes the Oregon Ducks showed power and strength against a common foe, how to close out an important game. Florida State must be reeling. Nick Saban will go back to the drawing board after Alabama sees the Duck highlights. This Duck defense gathered themselves and came out in the second half loaded for bear. Will they mop the Crimson Tide if given the chance? Put me down as a yes.

“My colleagues Rembrant and Caravaggio agree, the Ducks are no Notre Dame. If they win out and meet The Tide for the BCS Championship, Alabama will leave Pasadena bowed and bloody from lashing by a thousand rose bushes.”

The art world fears real art will disappear if no one buys it.

The sports world has no such concern, not when masterpieces created in backyard football moves to palaces like the Autzen Gallery and beyond.

There’s a moral here?

(posted on oregonsportsnews.com)