PHOENIX — With every stroke of his brush, Valley art teacher Carlos Jimenez is paying tribute to a Valley sports team.
“This painting is appropriately named 'Dominayton', so this was started the day after the 'Valley-Oop' last season,” said Jimenez pointing to a painting of Deandre Ayton.
For the past two years, the longtime Phoenix Suns fan has spent hours upon hours crafting the perfect lineup of portraits in honor of the players and legends delivering so much joy to him.
“I had to paint Mr. Al McCoy, you can never leave him out of any Suns conversations,” said Jimenez.
The characters gracing his canvas are the perfect subjects. The joy, focus, and excitement they show on the court each night are captured playfully in oil colors.
“One saying that we use in here a lot is that imperfections make your art perfect,” said Jimenez.
That quote is meant for the students he teaches at Sequoia Pathway Academy in Maricopa. Young minds embrace the idea of ditching sketches of fruits for their favorite athletes.
“You know I can have them draw a bottle and a pair of eyeglasses, it’s not gonna mean much but hey are you a Suns fan? Yeah, well check out this work and why don’t you try and do a portrait of the Suns? They’re obviously going to respond a lot better to that,” said Jimenez.
While his work is lighting up the Suns chat rooms, his real hope is to one day deliver a piece to the players who’ve inspired his latest artistic run.
“You know I admire these guys so much and they would just mean a great deal,” said Jimenez. “It would be an honor to give them my art.”
