During my senior year of university, I took a class in First Nations Art under Dana Claxton – a teacher and renowned artist who not only educated me on aboriginal art but helped open my eyes to the depictions of First Nations people in mainstream media. I focused my research on Professional Sports and their use of First Nations people as mascots, and emblems. In a large sense, with much imagery embellishing on racist imagery and stereotypes associated to First Nations people – from their depictions as wild red-skin warriors, or warpaint-donning scalpers, this mainstream practice very much resembled the novelty portrayal of Africans as minstrels and savage tribesmen with tar black skin, and bright red lips. As both an examination and reflection of my studies, I explored a “What If?” role-reversal of these usages in sports marketing, and designed a sports logo/mascot with Africans being the imagery focused upon.
The result: The Cleveland Africans.
Years later – 2009 to be exact, I polished up the design, adding a take on the MLB logo while in the process.
Although I originally posted the previous design, I revisited the concept once more and expanded on the imagery to tackle a wider racial spectrum.
The new result: GET CAUGHT LOOKING.
The title is derived from the a baseball term used to describe a batter who does not attempt to swing at an oncoming baseball thrown into the strike zone, resulting in a third strike.
Reasons for this lack of action:
1. The batter does not think that the pitched baseball will result in a strike, but rather a foul ball.
2. The batter is (purposefully) misled into thinking that the pitched baseball would not reach the strike zone.
This type of play is primarily put into effect by a skilled pitcher who is attempting to catch a batter looking on called third strikes.
A batter who is often caught looking displays:
1. A significant lack of knowledge regarding the strike zone.
2. A need to execute more swings/hits at delivered pitches, especially when there are two strikes in the count.
So metaphorically speaking…
