Worth A Thousand Words

I received an email from Mr. Mark A. Penxa, the man whose shield logo is displayed prominently to the left. Mr. Penxa is an accomplished artist whose works include a ton of excellent hockey imagery. What makes Mr. Penxa's work so great, in my humble opinion, is that he really captures the essence of what hockey is: the contrasts and bold colours of the sweaters, the detail that goes into each player's chiseled look and face, and the overall passion for the game that is brought to life in each image. And Mr. Penxa wanted to let me know about his exhibition of hockey images called Stealing Signs 2: Memories From My Last Life; Saskatchewan, 1934.

As Mr. Penxa stated in his email, this new exhibition is "a visual love letter to the game that we love so much". And it truly is a visual cornucopia of hockey images that should please anyone's eyes. You can view the entire collection here, but I want to point out a few of Mr. Penxa's images that I really like.

• Ghosts of the Forum: I absolutely love this image despite its tragic inference.
• New York Americans: This sweater jumps off the page. Gorgeous work!
• Clint Malarchuk: Gruesome, but so very vivid.
• Alexander Mogilny: That yellow-and-blue colour scheme is so iconic!
• Gary Bromley: That mask's paint job is legendary!
• Vladislav Tretiak: The Hall-of-Famer looks great in this picture.
• Don Cherry: The man with every opinion makes his appearance in the collection.

There are lots of gorgeous pieces of art in Mr. Penxa's collection aside from the ones I've listed above. I encourage you to go through them and be inspired by Mr. Penxa's work. If I had any sort of artistic talent, I would possibly attempt something like this, but I know my limits.

If you're interested in purchasing one of Mr. Penxa's pieces for your own hockey-themed room, click on the "Purchasing Information" link on his site. They are reasonably priced, and they would really catch people's eyes on a wall with other hockey memorabilia.

Great work, Mr. Penxa, and thanks for emailing! You have a fan in me!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!