Jersey City artist Lempa creates paintings on baseball cards, baseballs
When Paul Lempa was growing up, art was always a part of his life. So was his affinity for sports.
“I’ve always been artistic,” said Lempa, a Jersey City resident who was a standout basketball player at St. Peter’s Prep and New York University during his playing days. “I was always drawing since I was little. I remember waiting for Sports Illustrated to come to my house and then I would try to draw the cover. I was about 8 years old then.”
When Lempa was about 11 years old, he drew a sketch of the University of North Carolina men’s basketball team – a sketch that was eventually autographed by legendary coach Dean Smith.
“It was definitely a hobby, but when I got to high school, it sort of died down a little,” Lempa said. “I definitely didn’t draw much then. But when I got to NYU, I took a drawing class and got back into it. I was looking for something to do.”
However, Lempa didn’t major in art while at NYU.
“I was a history major,” Lempa said.
After getting a job at a Manhattan marketing agency as a creative director, Lempa took some drawing classes at Pratt Institute, as well as some graphic design classes. However, Lempa kept his love of sports in plain sight.
“I’m a big sports fan, first and foremost,” said the 38-year-old Lempa. “I’m also very nostalgic about sports. I like the look of old baseball cards. It has a rich tradition in Americana. I like the logo changes, the uniform changes. I got into card collecting and autograph collecting, but I just loved the way everything was back then. I’m definitely a student of baseball history.”
So with that as a motivation, Lempa decided to venture into combining his two favorite hobbies – art and sports.
“I started doing some sketches,” Lempa said. “I did sketches of Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson. I just wanted to see if I could do it. It took me about two years to get started.”
In 2003, Topps Baseball Cards came out with a series of hand painted images on baseball cards.
“I saw that and wished that I could do something like that,” Lempa said.
He’s ‘Topps’ with baseball cards
Through his card collecting, Lempa developed a relationship with some people involved with the Topps Baseball Card company. In 2007, Lempa presented a group of 10 hand-painted cards that he did. Topps loved what he created and asked him to do more.
In 2008, the Topps company produced the Stadium Club collection and asked Lempa to paint approximately 100 sketch cards from a host of approved photos.
It has now become the launch of a second career for Lempa.
While he has been able to maintain his career as a creative director in New York, Lempa has also been busy creating sports images on baseball cards, small posters, even painting on baseballs and footballs themselves.
His artistry is amazing, being able to intricately paint images on an object like a baseball.
“It is meticulous work,” said Lempa, who said it takes him approximately 30 hours to finish a painted baseball. But I love it though. Every time I finish one, I get the same reaction. People ask me, ‘How do you do that?’ It’s a pretty fun experience because my name appears on everything I do.”
Lempa said that he was commissioned by the legendary baseball Hall of Famer Bob Feller to do a painting of him that Feller sends out with his autograph. He painted a Babe Ruth baseball for Dean Smith and just finished a Mickey Mantle baseball for current Tar Heel head coach Roy Williams.
Lempa said that he gets most of his work done between the hours of 9 p.m. and 1 a.m., when his four children (Patrick, age 8; Greta, age 6; Eldon, age 3 and Ella, age 5 months) are long asleep. Lempa’s wife Deirdre, the daughter of local baseball coach Mike Zadroga, is also very supportive in Lempa’s artistic pursuit.
“When the kids see me working, they want to sit and draw with me,” Lempa said. “Deirdre has been wonderful. I make her look at everything I do. But she gets all the credit in the world, because she lets me sit down and do this.”
Lempa is currently busy doing 25 different National Football League players in time for the upcoming season, players like Eli Manning, Jason Campbell, Kurt Warner, Chad Ochocinco and Marshawn Lynch. Each is an action drawing with a scenic backdrop of the town in bright, bold colors where the player is located, like the New York skyline behind local hero Manning. It’s part of the Topps Nation Chickle series, which once were put on the back wrapper box of the popular jellied candy.
“I have to do one every two nights for the next 60 nights,” Lempa said. “I have so many projects to do. It’s crazy and I really don’t have the time, but I’ll find a way to get it done.”
Lempa will also paint the rookie card for Bayonne native Kenny Britt’s rookie card with the Tennessee Titans.
“I feel good about being able to do Kenny’s card, because I’ve known the family for a long time,” Lempa said.
Recently, Beckett Card Collecting Magazine did a feature story on Lempa and his art.
“I received good response from the article,” Lempa said.
He has been able to present his work of some star players, like Don Mattingly and Ozzie Smith, to show them.
“I went to Mattingly with the ball in my hand and asked him to sign it,” Lempa said. “He said, ‘Holy cow, you did this? This is the first time I’m going to be nervous signing a baseball. That made me feel good. It’s my favorite story.”
Lempa doesn’t know what’s going to come of his newfound fame as an artist. He still cannot concentrate full-time on his artwork, not with four children to care for.
“But it’s really exciting where this has all gone over the last three years,” Lempa said. “I’m excited about what could happen next. I’m just going to keep working hard and hope I get better at it. We’ll see what happens.”
Lempa’s art prowess has caught even his closest friends by surprise.
“Some of my friends from high school and college said that they never knew that I was an artist,” Lempa said. “I can definitely relate to it, because sports has always been a part of my life. I know what the athletes look like, even the old-time athletes. I have that connection with sports.”
If anyone is interested in seeing any of sports artist Paul Lempa’s work and see some of the pieces that are available for purchase, log on to www.paullempa.com Many of his works are on display at that site and you can also contact Lempa through e-mail on that site. – Jim Hague
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