TRIUMPH
Basketball court turned canvas
Triumph - Basket ball court art by: Fluke, Montreal, 2023
Earlier this year, the Montréal borough of Villeray Saint-Michel Parc-Extension decided to update Park Champdoré’s basketball court in dire need of renovations with a complete rebuild and resurfacing job. When they approached me Initially, I was excited to finally get to paint one of these. I had seen so many courts get covered with amazing art and always wondered how it would feel to paint on the ground at that scale. I originally thought “it can’t be that far from what I know right?”
I couldn't have been more wrong. From the jump we were tasked with using a special type of acrylic polymer that was pre mixed with sand. The application of this thick paint is done by masking the desired location and spreading the cement like liquid with large squeegees. .
In order to translate my style with this medium I needed to innovate the way these products got applied while keeping the thickness of the paint even across the entire surface.
I broke my head trying to custom make tools, modify sprayers and make test samples to accomplish this but in the end, after weeks of research, I figured out how to move and paint across the court in a completely different way.
Full court press
The design needed to be simple enough to read when standing on the court so as not to confuse the artwork with the final game lines. But at the same time, I really wanted to go in on the details in certain areas and create new textures.
When I finally started to get the hang of things and learned to manipulate the paint puddles it was on! We spent the next five weeks ducking the rain and tornado warnings and jumped on the court any chance were given.
And the result…
Location: 2400 Rue Champdoré, Montréal, QC H1Z 1G2
I’m so grateful to the city and its project leaders for trusting me, allowing me to create freely and letting me explore new techniques with them. And obviously, these projects wouldn’t be possible without the awesome team behind me! Video by: The Dream Catcher Assist by: Five8 and Otak
