With Minnesota as His "Muse," Kickliy Documents Twins Season Through Paintings

[Melissa Berman]

It's 10:45 a.m. on May 29- a warm and glorious but slightly muggy morning on Memorial Day weekend. Target Field's gates don't open until 11, but the local artist known as Kickliy is already in line. Though the other early bird fans arriving at the stadium might be toting around baseball mitts or an "It's My First Twins Game!" sign, Kickliy is undoubtedly the only one lugging around painting supplies. 

Once in the stadium, he buys a camo-patterned Twins bucket hat (to protect his neck from the sun, he says) and settles in the shimmering sunshine of the first baseline- paints and brushes in hand.

Whether it’s from spotting him at Twins or Wild games or seeing his colorful and action-packed artwork pop up on social media, many fans have begun to take notice of this artist who presents a new way to view their favorite sports teams. Meet Kickliy, a life-long Minnesotan and professional artist who has made Minnesota sports his muse. He's painted at nearly every Twins game this season, both from the stands and on the concourse. He's painted in the sun, rain, and everything in between.

“I found my muse”
Kickliy was born and raised in Inver Grove Heights. Following a car accident seven years ago, Kickliy, a self-taught artist who previously illustrated comic books for a living, traveled to Paris to "rebuild his life." For four years, he was a "museum rat" (a positive term there, he clarified with a laugh) and did master studies of the great painters. He honed his skills in gouache painting, the medium Kickliy primarily uses. Then he returned to Minnesota. At first, he had no idea what he would paint- Minneapolis is not exactly the bustling, world-renowned bucket list location that is Paris. The Mall of America is not the Louvre. To him, everything seemed "blah." But once the pandemic started, Kickliy had the realization that his inspiration was right in front of him; he could paint the very things he adores about Minnesota. 

“It was more or less like, ‘Wait a minute- I love the State Fair.' 'Wait a minute- I love Minnesota sports- I can do this.’ I found my muse,” he said.

It started with the State Fair in 2020, which was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Like many Minnesotans, Kickliy deeply loves the State Fair, which he describes as a “magical place.”

"I've been going to the State Fair for 44 years in a row, so I didn't want to break my streak. So I took all my old sketchbooks that I have, and I just started doing paintings on them, and I created my own State Fair."

Kickliy completed 80 paintings of familiar State Fair sights like the butter sculptures in the Dairy Building and the Corn Roast Booth and turned them into a book. Then at the following year's 2021 State Fair, he painted in person. Ultimately, he went to all 12 days of the Fair and completed 83 paintings.

Next, in the fall of 2021, he painted the Vikings. Around this time, Kickliy noticed Twins President Dave St. Peter had followed him on Twitter. Incredulous and excited, Kickliy reached out to St. Peter. St. Peter said he enjoyed Kickliy's Vikings paintings. Kickliy told St. Peter that he was interested in painting the Twins, but by that point, there were only a few Twins games left of the 2021 season. St. Peter said to reach out to him next season.

Sure enough, before the 2022 season, Kickliy followed up by sending St. Peter an email stating that he was interested in being able to roam the stadium freely and paint. The Twins gave him the go-ahead, and off with his paints he went. 

“He's a talented artist, and the Twins are grateful for his creative approach to capturing the Target Field experience," Twins President Dave St. Peter said. 

"Real-life superheroes"
Kickliy arrives at Target Field when the gates open so he can begin painting the Twins while they warm up. During a Twins game, Kickliy typically paints about 5-6 pictures. He will move throughout the stadium to produce paintings from different angles. This mobility sometimes elicits humorous reactions from onlooking, astonished fans.

"If people sit next to me or are behind me, they're watching me the whole time. And because I'll get up and move after I capture maybe a couple, they'll say, 'No, don't go.' And I'm like, 'I'm sorry, this is what I do.' 'We thought you were going to be there the whole game!' At a certain point, after I get a few of them from that angle, I want to float around and try and get something else," he said. 

A larger scene might take as much as an hour to paint. A more zoomed-in picture, like an action shot focusing on a specific player, will take less time, but it all depends on what he's capturing. As sports fans know, a play can happen in the blink of an eye, and Kickliy has to move fast to capture it and remember what he saw. 

"These guys are, in a sense, as close as you can get to real-life superheroes. So it's like, they're doing unbelievable things and things that the normal person can't do. So I'm just trying to be as quick as I can to document that," he said.

When Kickliy shows up to a Twins game, he never knows what he will capture. 

"I don't know what I'm going to paint here. Whether it be the food vendors, normal people, players, whatever, it's just whatever catches my fancy," he said. "Each painting begets the next one. Like I said, I don't know what I'm going to do or how I'm going to do it. But by doing one, it then just gives me ideas to do the next."

Even when the Twins lose, Kickliy says he still feels that he won because he captured the game's exciting, beautiful moments, both on and off the field. 

“Muscle Memory” 
Compared to hockey, where every player is non-stop moving, and there are multiple lines of players subbing in and out of the game, baseball is a little slower-paced and, therefore, a bit easier to paint, according to Kickliy. In a sense, only two people are moving at a time: the pitcher and the batter. But when a play happens in baseball, he needs to remember what he saw so he can paint it. If he had to constantly look between his work and the player on the field to see, say, what the player's glove looks like, the painting would take him much longer. And he needs to get this moment captured so he can be ready for the next one. 

"I have moments to lock the information into my head," he said. "And then when the play actually happens, I have to remember, does, you know, Buxton have high socks? Is he wearing red shoes today? Does he have on white batters gloves or red batter's gloves? And they have four uniforms. That's kind of the hardest thing- now remembering that kind of information."

Not only does Kickliy need to memorize the attributes of the players, but he needs to take note of what was going on around a play. For example, if there is a diving catch in the outfield, what color were the advertisements on the outfield walls behind it? While others call Kickliy "fast," he prides himself most in being accurate.

By the end of the season, he wants to know the players “in and out.” He wants painting these players to be “muscle memory” for him.

"I don't have to sit here and think; all I got to do is look- does Buxton's swing end up, or does it end down? I know the rest of it," Kickliy said.

And he is well on his way. For example, he knows what Byron Buxton's legs look like. He knows that Buxton has a "blueish, worn out, lighter yellow-type glove." Kickliy has devoted extensive time studying the players' personalities, attitudes, and body language.

“I could tell these players what they're doing wrong based on their swing. I can tell that certain players have confidence or no confidence based on their swing and their body language,” he said.

“More special than the game”
For Kickliy, one of the greatest joys about painting at Twins games has been the fans he has met. He has also realized that painting the crowd is "just as fun as painting the players." 

While waiting for the next Twins play, sometimes Kickliy will start painting the crowd. This has sometimes brought humorous, lighthearted results. At a recent Twins game, he noticed a bachelor party group that was fruitlessly trying to get the attention of a nearby camera operator because they wanted to be on the outfield big screen. Kickliy painted the group, then showed them the painting. At first, the bachelor party-goers did not realize the significance of it. Then, they looked a little closer and spotted themselves in the picture one by one. They were beside themselves with excitement.

"It was even better than getting on the big screen," Kickliy said.

Kickliy ended up making prints of the painting for the soon-to-be groom.   

He recently painted the Red Cow booth on the concourse while "palling around" with a couple of kids who were watching on with wonder. They excitedly peppered Kickliy with questions as he painted. "And to me, that was more special than the game," Kickliy said. 

Kickliy, outwardly friendly, energetic, and bursting with enthusiasm, adores interacting with the fans. 

"Some people say, 'I was afraid to come up to you,' and I'm like, 'Why?' Come up to me and say, hi. I spend a lot of time alone drawing and stuff- coming out and doing this is fun. Why wouldn't I want to meet people and say hi?"

At the same time, he is competitive with himself and wants to make sure he can document the game's exciting moments.

“My fear is, at a certain point, it’s maybe not a negative thing as much as I want to say hi to people, and I want to be friendly, but it's also like, I’ve got to think too, and I’ve got to document this right now. I hope people don't think I'm being rude,” Kickliy said. 

While he has painted the Twins from home when the team is on the road, to him it does not compare to being there in person. These memorable fan interactions help explain why. 

“Paint with champagne”
Kickliy's dream is to be able to paint from other areas of Target Field, such as the dugout, the clubhouse, or on the field when the Twins are practicing. He wants to get a "360 view" of what a Twins season is like. 

"I want to be everywhere because at a certain point, the normal fan can see what I'm painting now. I want to get the stuff where, you know, intimate moments, joyous moments, and sorrowful moments. I want to be there to get these types of things- it's history. I'm documenting history," Kickliy said. 

Above all, his dream as both a professional artist and Twins fan is to be in the clubhouse when the Twins win a World Series. He wants to paint the celebration using champagne to wet his brush.

Serving as an "artist in residence" would not be uncharted territory in sports- artist Leroy Neiman chronicled the New York Jets through his paintings during the 1969 season when the Jets won the Super Bowl. But it would be a first for baseball. To Kickliy, paintings are an important, effective way to document history. 

“A photo can capture it, right? But rarely does it capture energy or emotion. Sometimes it does, and those are the best photos. But a painting can be much more than a photo,” he said. 

Outside of baseball, Kickliy would like to cover the whole Minnesota experience, from small businesses to the Fishing Opener to a deer stand. He even dreams of painting a wedding.

The paintings Kickliy is doing at Twins games he considers to be "studies." In art, a study is a drawing, sketch or painting done in preparation for a finished piece, as visual notes, or as practice. To some, the paintings might seem "juvenile." They're not. Kickliy's Twins paintings are “shorthand" and "not meant to be super finished." He simply does not have time at games to make a fully-finished painting. Eventually, Kickliy plans to turn some of these studies into full-fledged oil paintings. He could combine a few study paintings into a new, original piece too. He might even display these oil paintings in a gallery. Kickliy hopes to capture the original energy and heart of the studies in the oil paintings he creates; sometimes, studies have more "life" in them, he says.

Some of the study paintings of memorable moments he has given to players so their families can have them as a keepsake.

Regardless, even though Kickliy has begun to draw local and even national attention for his artwork, to him, the newfound notoriety is simply a byproduct of doing what he loves. His heart is with Minnesota and its local sports teams. He does not want to paint the Yankees “unless they’re losing.” 

"I want these teams and the players and everyone to trust me. Everything from me is coming from the heart," Kickliy said. "And there's no 'me trying to get famous' off of this. I know that in me doing this and the way I'm going about it, that might be a side effect. But I don't care about that. If I'm coming from that side, all my paintings will be tainted with desperation. And I want there to be a purity of these paintings."

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[h2oface]

Thanks for this great article. My favorite of the year for sure.

[Rosterman]

Enjoyed this look at a way to combine arts and sports. Kudos to the Twins for letting the guy roam and paint!

 

[SockNet]

How can I get one of these watercolor(studies) pics?

 

[Melissa Berman]

5 hours ago, h2oface said:

Thanks for this great article. My favorite of the year for sure.

Thank you so much for the kind words! It was a joy to write. He's incredibly friendly and introspective 

[operation mindcrime]

I can draw a mean stick figure!

[Melissa Berman]

1 hour ago, operation mindcrime said:

I can draw a mean stick figure!

You and me both! ?

[Game7-91]

Loved the story! Interesting guy and talent....shows there are some cool people and things to experience at TF....thanks Melissa and TD for supporting these types of stories, I think theyre great. Keep 'em comin!

[Melissa Berman]

2 hours ago, Game7-91 said:

Loved the story! Interesting guy and talent....shows there are some cool people and things to experience at TF....thanks Melissa and TD for supporting these types of stories, I think theyre great. Keep 'em comin!

Thanks for the kind words ? The story was a blast to write, and I'm hoping to write lots more features in the future 

[nclahammer]

What a terrific read, and great thinking outside the box content.  Every pair of eyes at Target Field offers its own perspective.  Reminds me of when Leroy Neiman painted Harmon Killebrew on the David Letterman show dedicted to Harmon.

[Melissa Berman]

8 hours ago, nclahammer said:

What a terrific read, and great thinking outside the box content.  Every pair of eyes at Target Field offers its own perspective.  Reminds me of when Leroy Neiman painted Harmon Killebrew on the David Letterman show dedicted to Harmon.

Thank you so much for the kind words, I really appreciate it a lot. I really enjoy writing these "outside the box" feature stories the most, so definitely will be looking for others to write in the future ?

[Craig Arko]

Best thing I’ve read here in a long time. Thank you!