A picture is worth a thousand words.
And over the years, Malcolm Farley has been saying thousands of words with his artwork.
Farley, who has been painting since he was eight years old, brought his talents to Metro State, where he graduated in 1982 with a degree in art. He played basketball for Metro State in late 1970s before the program disbanded for six years. Farley has the distinction of being the first student to have designed the Metro State intramural logo.
Since graduating, Farley has been painting art works of famous athletes such as Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa, former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway, U.S. Open champion Pete Sampras, to musical artists such as B.B. King, Carlos Santana, The Four Tops, Russ Freeman, the cast and crew of the HBO hits series "The Soprano's" and many more. More recently since his induction, Farley has continued the sports theme with Super Bowl paintings, World Series paintings, individual athletes such as Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, musicians such as Bono from U2 and Tim McGraw, while adding spiritual paintings to his portfolio.
But Farley is remembered for his old school.
After the Metro State men's basketball team won its first-ever NCAA Division II National Championship in 2000, Farley painted pictures of men's and women's basketball, baseball and volleyball players. These paintings were auctioned off with the proceeds going to Metro State athletic scholarships.
The Metro State athletic department was able to use these paintings as covers for its media guides from those respective sports during the 2000-01 season. The men's basketball cover won the CoSIDA publications contest for best cover for all of Division II.
When the Harlem Globetrotters celebrated their 75th anniversary in Chicago in 2001, Farley painted a picture for the team and the proceeds went to support Metro State scholarships.
Those wishing to view or purchase his artwork can visit
www.malcolmfarley.com or
www.malcolmfarleyfineart.com.
