0110 - Tim Carroll
Tim Carroll is a world-renowned baseball card pop artist who has his works displayed in multiple museums across the country, including the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. During our conversation, he referenced a handful of things and people upon which you may want to do more research. Consider this page to be your “liner notes” for the episode so you can follow along.
Tim Carroll and me after recording our interview at the 2019 National Card Convention in Chicago
NSTA 2009
Tim and his wife went to New Orleans in March of 2009 to attend (and present at) the NSTA National Conference on Science Education.
T206 Honus Wagner
This is the Holy Grail of all trading cards. It features one of baseball's greatest players, and, more than 100 years after its release, it remains the symbol of trading card collecting.
Tim’s 2019 Wagner
Tim’s updated version of one of his very first concept pieces. Completed in 2019, ten years after he finished the first one.
1952 Topps Mickey Mantle
The second of three cards Tim has revisited, this version of the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card was made from nearly 1,600 cut baseball cards (including roughly 200 Orel Hershiser cards from the 1989 Topps set).
Concept Griffey
This was Tim’s original attempt at one of the most iconic cards in the hobby: the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey, Jr. Rookie Card. Ken actually signed this piece! Tim completed this piece in 2008.
Griffey, Revisited
There are a few cards in the hobby that are iconic, in every sense of the word. The 1989 Griffey Rookie is absolutely one of them. Tim completed this piece in 2016.
Road Map
You can see Tim’s crude drawing and shading still exposed at the base of this Mike Trout piece as he works on it at the 2019 National in Chicago. The cut pieces he expects to need to use for the piece are ready to go for him, separated by color.
Grid Approach
Thanks to his background in math, Tim takes the proper dimensions of each card and simply scales them up to the size of the piece he’s working on. Having a visual reference of the original card he’s recreating, along with his road map, enable him to create his mosaics.
N162 Cap Anson
This recreation of the 1888 Goodwin Champions Cap Anson shows the beauty of the card, especially in the background colors and design. You can read about Tim’s thoughts and process behind working on this card HERE
N162 King Kelly
Another example from the 1888 Goodwin Champions set, this recreation of the King Kelly card actually ended up in the same collection as the Anson shown above.
1933 Goudey Babe Ruth
Completed by Tim in 2015, this recreation of the 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth ended up being 20” x 26.5” and was made from cut junk 80s and 90s cards.
1979 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky
Tim finished his recreation of the key rookie card of hockey’s greatest player in 2018.
1986 Fleer Michael Jordan
This is the most recognizable basketball card and the most important modern card from any sport in the entire hobby. Tim somehow managed to make it better than it already is. And it was already perfect.
T206 Harry Pattee
Pattee only collected 57 total hits in his 80 career games, but my god did he luck out with this beauty of a baseball card from one of the most iconic sets in history.
T206 Ty Cobb
There are four different Ty Cobb examples in the T206 set. This version, which has become known as the “Bat Off Shoulder” Cobb, is probably the most visually stunning card of “The Georgia Peach” of the group.
1973 Topps Mike Schmidt
Schmidt’s Rookie Card may be more valuable…
1975 Topps Mike Schmidt
…but the 1975 Schmidt is the nicer art piece. I mean, just look at this beauty!
1991 Fleer Pro-Vision Bo Jackson
This is how many kids saw Bo Jackson in the early 90s: part man, part machine.
1990 Upper Deck John Olerud
Everybody has to have a favorite player. And for one John Olerud fan, this commissioned piece from Tim was the perfect gift.
1987 Topps Mookie Wilson
Some of Tim’s personal favorite completed pieces aren’t of high value cards. This 1987 Topps Mookie Wilson, for instance, had huge sentimental value for one collector, which made it extremely satisfying for Tim to finish.
Tim’s Garage
Tim set up his studio in his garage, which is decorated with some of his unsold pieces and personal collection.
1962 Topps Mickey Mantle
The 1962 Topps Mantle may not have anywhere near the financial value of the 1952 Topps Mantle, but sometimes the sentimental value of a card is more important than how much it is worth monetarily.
1988 Score Gregg Jefferies
The cards from the 1988 Score set may not be very valuable today, but until his dad snuck a ‘62 Mantle into his stack, this Gregg Jefferies card was the best in Tim’s collection. The huge borders with various colors from the ‘88 Score set have ended up coming in handy for Tim many times over the years. And peep the beautiful Mets tops that were worn this year!
1987 Topps Donnie Moore
Donnie Moore went 43-40 with 89 saves and a 3.67 ERA in his 13-year career. But Tim will always remember him because his ‘87 Topps card has lots of green, lots of blue, and lots of wood.
1987 Topps Eddie Milner
A 9-year career that only saw him hit .253 with 42 career home runs, Eddie Milner has largely been forgotten. But his ‘87 Topps card has tons of green in it, so Tim uses it whenever he can find one.
1987 Topps Bryan Clutterbuck
When you’re looking at cards through Tim’s eyes, you start to see them differently. You notice all of the blue in this card that can be useful to you, and you might overlook Bryan Clutterbuck’s 2-6 record with a 4.21 ERA in 34 career games.
Tools of the Trade
You’ve heard of working your fingers to the bone. But Tim works his scissors to the… I don’t know… to the metal part underneath the comfortable rubber grip things? Not quite as catchy, but imagine how many hours of work it must take to do that! And he’s done it multiple times. Wescott, the brand of scissors Tim prefers, even claims on their site that “This will be the last scissor you will ever need.” Hah! Clearly, they’ve never met Tim.
T206 Christy Mathewson
The T206 set actually has three different Christy Mathewson cards, with this one commonly referred to as the Mathewson “Portrait” card.
N172 Cap Anson
There were two different Anson cards in the N172 set, which is perhaps the most important 19th Century set in existence. The cards were packed in Old Judge and Gypsy Queen Cigarette packs, which is why the set is commonly referred to as the “Old Judge” set.
T218 Edward Payson Weston
According to the back of this exquisite example from the T218 Champions set of 1910, “Edward Payson Weston is probably the greatest pedestrian that ever lived.”
His greatest achievement was when he walked from Los Angeles to New York City (a distance of 3,600 miles) in 78 days at age 71.
Mayumi Seto
Seto is the artist behind the Topps Living sets. Originally from Kyoto, Japan, she has been creating art since she was 9 years old and has sketched everything from landscapes to Dragon Ball Z characters, in addition to baseball players.
Inspiration
Tim used Seto’s Topps Living Mike Trout card as inspiration for one of his pieces. Here is when Tim was just getting started on it.
Starting to Come Together
After finishing the bottom section with his name, position, and the Angels logo, and laying down the base of the batting helmet, Tim’s Mike Trout card started to take shape.
Nearing Completion
Tim worked on the piece at the 2019 National in Chicago, and while it looked close to finished to the untrained eye, Tim still had hours of work left to do.
Finished Piece
Here is Tim’s finished piece, based on the Mike Trout entry in the Topps Living Set.
The premise behind the Living Set program is that it’s a trading card set that starts with Card #1, but does not have a final card. It’s not tied to any specific season or era... but lives on year after year. It’s the first cross-generational product that can be collected and traded for years to come.
Topps only issues one card per player, unless that player changes teams. Three new players are offered every week and are only available for purchase for one week.
1955 Topps Sandy Koufax
Tim’s Sandy Koufax piece based on his 1955 rookie card was pre-approved to be permanently displayed at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Shoebox Treasures
“We decided to have a wall displaying a variety of art that has been inspired by and/or created from baseball cards,” said Hall of Fame Assistant Curator Gabrielle Augustine.
“Besides the fact that it’s really cool and that I think our visitors will love it, this piece shows that baseball cards have transcended beyond the card collecting world... It shows that baseball cards can be both the medium and the inspiration behind amazing art.”
“Starry Night”
According to Tim, this is what happens when the baseball card artist meets a client that also loves Van Gogh.
Chuck Close
Tim definitely drew inspiration from Chuck Close’s method of scaling small pictures up to huge pieces by using a grid system.
Close is seen here working on “Robert/104,072” some time in either 1973 or 1974.
The piece, which measured in at 108” x 84” in its final form, was made with acrylic, ink, and pencil on a gessoed canvas.
1953 Topps Satchel Paige
Tim’s recreation of this classic 1953 Topps card of Satchel Paige is perfect down to every last detail; including the fact that Topps misspelled Satchel’s name on the card!
Satchel’s Sky
Tim knew that to get the blue for the sky, and to get the white for the border, he could use the backs of old baseball cards which often times used light blue or white backgrounds behind the statistics to make them easier to read.
Faces in the Crowd
Tim cut up hundreds of cards to find faces that had the right tones to create Satchel’s face for his recreation of 1953 Topps card #220.
“Splendid Splinter”
Tim made this Ted Williams piece out of 1,941 toothpicks, a nod to his incredible 1941 season. It hangs in the Ted Williams Museum & Hitters Hall of Fame.
“Toothpick Ted”
Another Ted Williams piece made of toothpicks, a play on Ted’s nickname “The Splendid Splinter.”
“Big Hurt”
Tim made this Frank Thomas piece out of band-aids and framed it with Ace bandages as an homage to Frank’s nickname, “The Big Hurt.” Tim is what you could call a “mixed media artist” apparently!
“Sweetness”
Tim made this Walter Payton piece out of Sweet’N Low, Equal, and sugar packets to play off of Walter’s famous nickname, “Sweetness.” The finished piece was 30” wide by 40" tall.
Mariano Rivera
Since Mariano was so well known for breaking batters’ bats during his career, and since he faced the Red Sox more than anyone, Tim found it fitting to use pieces from a broken Dustin Pedroia bat to create this piece.
Bo Knows Shattered Bats
Tim made this 40” x 30” piece out of a shattered Bo Jackson bat. It is based on a photo which appeared on the cover of a Beckett Magazine in June of 1990.
Bo Knows Cut Cards
The same photo also appeared on 1990 Score card #697, which gave Tim license to recreate his own version out of cut cards. The finished piece was 28.5” wide by 20.5” tall.
Bo Knows Details
Finding only black and white cards can sometimes prove to be a struggle. For the border, Tim used a bunch of old checklist cards.
Buck O'Neil sings take me out to the ballgame.
Tim’s Son, Mason
Tim made this piece in late 2017 of his then-10-year-old son, Mason out of cut baseball cards. The finished product was about 3 feet by 3 feet.
“Game Called Because of Rain”
This piece, based on the famous Norman Rockwell painting, took Tim over 300 hours to complete. He finally finished on March 1, 2019 after using more than 4,000 baseball cards to achieve the 34.5” x 37” finished product.
If it were up to Tim, this would never happen again.
SMR Magazine
Tim was featured in an article in the September, 2019 issue of PSA’s Sports Market Report magazine. You can read the article, subtitled “Turning Sports Cards Into Modern Art” HERE
T218 Champions Card Set
The Jack Johnson card is easily the most famous card from this incredibly unique, diverse set from circa 1910, which gives an interesting insight into the state of sports in America at the time.
Edward Payson Weston
Weston was a notable pedestrian, who was largely responsible for the rise in popularity of the sport in the 1860s and 1870s, though the most famous of his feats were his cross-country treks in 1909 and 1910.
Some other websites I accessed while doing research for this interview with Tim Carroll:
http://baseballart.com/bright-future-in-the-cards-for-baseball-artist-tim-carroll/
https://baseballhall.org/discover/shortstops/art-of-koufax-card-part-of-shoebox-treasures