Academy of Light Opportunity

Recently, Alex Whelan contacted the Fine Art students with an opportunity to submit some ideas for a mural that the club want to be painted in the reception of the Academy of Light. When this came around I was very intrigued and excited about this opportunity because of my passion for my club and knowledge of the city and the club's history.

The inital idea was to submit work for a small curved wall in the foyer of the building. However, when I went to the meeting about the mural we found out that we could actually move onto another wall as well, a wall that has a mounted TV on it, so we needed to work our ideas around that fixed TV.

As you can see, my initial idea was a timeline dating back to the founding of SAFC and continuing through to the present day.

My second idea was a montage, done in water colour at this stage, of the history of Sunderland the city and Sunderland the football club.

My proposal: The first thing that came to my mind when I heard about the curved wall idea, was a timeline. A timeline of the club's history; something to draw the eye. The young players who come through the entrance (or even the first team) may not know the long history of the club and our achievements and I thought this would be a fun way for them to learn, and possibly even add to the successes of SAFC. Personally, SAFC is close to my heart (I have a season ticket), so being able to design something that might be featured in the Academy is very exciting. Predominantly I am a painter therefore the materials I was thinking of using would be paint, probably acrylic or emulsion but possibly oils if the academy will allow it, something that takes a lot of hard work. I know there are two walls to take into consideration and I love portraits. So I wanted to incorporate the football club's history through portraits, celebrations from players that are iconic. However, Sunderland was a shipbuilding town and the the Monkwearmouth bridge was important in the Homecoming of the 1973 FA cup final. So why not put those two things together? Penshaw Monument is on our badge, and the Davy Lamp is the symbol of light in the darkness both down the pit and now, outside of the stadium. This is a very exciting opportunity and because I know and love this club so much it would be an honour to produce a mural for the Academy. Not only for myself, but for the players, young players and staff to appreciate this city and club as much as I do.

I am excited to say that I have been selected to produce the mural for the Academy, starting in the new year. We will be visiting the Academy some time in the first week back.