Sundance Square Futbol
On April 1st of 2026 my husband and I schlepped from Austin to Ft Worth to pick up a 3 foot tall fiberglass soccer ball.
My friend (the incredible artist Sari Shryack who is currently doing a residency in Ft. Worth) invited me to be part of an opportunity: a handful of Texas artists were tasked to decorate a giant soccer ball, to be part of a collection featured at Sundance Square in downtown Ft. Worth during the FIFA games. The same FIFA games being held literally 20 minutes away in Arlington.
It all happened so fast. On March 31st, Sari asked me to submit a proposal. A creative idea to be approved, before I was to pick it up the next day. I went with my first idea and rode (galloped?) with it.
This was my first idea. It was sketched in a car while headed to Brenham, Texas, to go horseback riding with my husband for our 7 year wedding anniversary. I had horses on the brain, sue me!
Once I got it home I only had 20 days before it was due back in Ft. Worth, so I hit the ground running. That is, if running is spending entire 5 days just spray painting the base color. I outlined the horses all around at least 4 times, covering and redrawing on repeat.
The first week was all trial and error. Learned (the hard way?) that soccer balls have both pentagons and hexagons, and that they’re different sizes. Sheesh.
This thing didn’t fit in my house, btw. I worked on it in my garage, in the crazy Texas April weather, where it was 90 degrees one day and 50 degrees the next. I took selfies with it every day, my new best friend, this ball.
After painting over several experiments and attempts, I decided to go really impressionistic with the landscape. I wanted it to feel like growing up in the desert. Time slipping past me, and time lying in wait ahead of me.
The cowboys are translucent—showing the impermanence of us, we wild human cowboys—against the ungraspable permanence of the natural scene. The process of making them translucent was a meticulous one, I created an acrylic glaze which needed to be layered at least 3 times on each of the 20 cowboys.
I listened to several audiobooks while working on this ball, including:
“Stay True” by Hua Hsu
“A Good Person” by Kirsten King
“It Happened One Summer” by Tessa Bailey
“The Magician’s Nephew” by C.S. Lewis
“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” by C.S. Lewis
“The Everlasting” by Alix E. Harrow (I loved this one)
“Starling House” by Alix E. Harrow
“The Ten Thousand Doors of January” by Alix E. Harrow
This is actually an insane list… I said “several” because I thought maybe it was 3-4 books, not 8 books. I really poured my heart and soul into this thang, didn’t I? I also listen to audiobooks when I do any chores, so, there’s that. BUT STILL, 8?? In 20 days?? That can’t be right. And yet, I know it is.
Here we are celebrating at the unveiling party in Sundance Square. I loved meeting all the artists and seeing random people posing with my ball. Pictured above from left to right: a random family and my ball, my husband, me and my ball, Sari, me and my ball, and me and my ball ~~at night.~~
~~at night~~
Me in my garage, with the finished product. So proud.
I made this super cool video of the process, go watch it, and like it, and comment something nice, and follow me:
