John Hollady is not only a prolific artist, he is a true talent. John works in many media: oils, acrylic, pen and ink, cartoons, and watercolor, but he most well known for his watercolors. Louisa Gould Gallery has represented John for five years and we are very excited to show this new body of work which has never been shown before: John Holladay Sports Art. Although these sports teams of the NCAA, NFL, and NBA were licensed and sold as posters in the 1980's, this is the first time the originals are available for sale. They are not only important as works of art, but they have historical importance because John has included many relevant details within each watercolor illustration. This Sport Art show will appeal to sports fans, art followers, and those with a sense of humor. The Louisa Gould Gallery is excited to show a new genre of art by one of our artists. Please join us for this special show.

Since John Holladay was in elementary school, he realized he could entertain his friends by drawing cartoons. While in college, John began painting especially in watercolor, which led him to exhibit in shows throughout the Midwest. One year he painted a typical landscape but altered it by putting Mickey Mouse asleep under a tree. He got what he was looking for: comments such as “why did you ruin the painting?” and “That is hilarious!”. Some people didn’t even see Mickey. Someone finally bought the painting. At the next art show he started selling cartoons. Around 1975 he went to a show in Omaha where he brought a cartoon version of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He took close to a thousand orders for a Nebraska poster. So that is how it started.

The posters were a statement about everyday life and not just about sports. You will find everyone sitting in the stadium. You’ll find Laurel and Hardy, the Pope, the Beatles and the list goes on. Each poster is a conversation piece.

The demand for the posters grew with every show he was in. In 1976 John formed Holladay Prints in Davenport, Iowa. His cartoon posters started selling locally and then expanded very quickly throughout the Midwest. The Chicago Cubs was his first professional teams to be licensed. He was one of the only artists to be licensed by Notre Dame. He created posters for the “Big Ten” and then branched out to do the “Southern Conference” and more. The NFL approached him to create posters for all their teams.

John sold over 5 million posters. Some images like Florida State sold over twenty thousand posters. His designs where sold to t-shirt companies where the t-shirts where picked up by a lot of companies, including Walmart. His designs where picked up by Buffalo Games, a jigsaw puzzle company, who sold millions of puzzles. He was commissioned by companies like John Deere, PGA Golf, Hewlett Packard, Tropicana Resort, and Universal Studios, just to name a few. He was picked up by Charles Levy to create a whole line of greeting cards for the city of Chicago.

This is the first time John is offering these images for sale. He finds it very important to get these pieces of art in the hands of great sports collectors. The originals are one of a kind, even though the posters where sold in the millions. The sale of posters stopped in the year 2000. The images are a collector's items: when they are gone there will be no more of them.

Louisa Gould Gallery is located at 54 Main Street Vineyard Haven on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Please call (508) 693.7373 for directions and hours or visit the website www.louisagould.com to view the show on-line.