North Country Student Artists Help Create Giant Painting Celebrating a New Century of Art-In-Sports – Created by Sports “Olympic Picasso”
North Country Student Artists Help Create Giant Painting Celebrating a New Century of Art-In-Sports – Created by Sports “Olympic Picasso”
Lake Placid, NY (February 10, 2025) – In 1969, the rock band Three Dog Night released “One is the Loneliest Number.” It would be among their greatest hits.
Fittingly, the group’s record title provides eerie similarities between one becoming an athlete and an artist where solitude, loneliness and a humbling ability to accept failure becomes the difference for becoming the best one can be. Roald Bradstock, a two-time Olympian and now an internationally recognized artist promoting a new genre known as “Olympism’, has found a way to escape and an artist’s depth of solitude and loneliness.
For Bradstock, “One” is no longer the loneliest number. Since joining in 2006 a group of athlete artists lead by former four-time gold medalist Al Oerter, known as the Art of the Olympians, Bradstock has been dedicated to the cause advancing the concept of art-in-sport. Today, Art of the Olympians enters its 19th year as the premier program body under the direction of the Al Oerter Foundation.
The education of youth about the ideals and values promoted within the modern Olympic Games is paramount to this organization’s creed and goals. Once taught primarily in a community group environment setting, the organization for which Bradstock serves as program leader, uses an educational classroom setting as a means for teaching how art-in-sports provides essential life lessons.
There is little room for “loneliness” now for Bradstock’s educational program. Classroom and group instruction have given way to community group sessions. And in just a few short weeks, the work of nearly 100 Northern New York high school art students will be unveiled on March 8 at the Al Oerter Foundation’s Olympic Regional student art-in-sports awards program at the Lake Placid Convention Center.
Giant Paneled Painting Embodies Rich North Country Sports History
Buried in his northwest Atlanta suburban art studio for nearly four months, Bradstock, known internationally as the “Olympic Picasso,” created a mixed-media 24-panel painting titled, “Together.” When assembled for viewing at the March 8 regional student art celebration, the roughly eight foot by 12 foot multi-paneled “mural” will celebrate the past 100 years of Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games – in particular the rich winter sports history which embodies the northern New York counties.
“Together” expands on what symbolically the Olympic rings literally represent. The mixed media painting embraces all the elements of the newly global recognized “Olympism” art genre with is subject matter that of repetitious visual styling and its timing of why, when, where, how, and who all created within the piece.
Within the multi-paneled painting’s 184,240 one-eighth inch squares includes the depiction of all flags of countries that have hosted the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the names of all Winter Olympic/Paralympic Games host cities, the names and icons of all sport disciplines within the Winter Games, the years for each Winter Olympic/Paralympic Game, the inscriptions of the Olympic and Paralympic mottos, and the names of the modern Olympic Games founders.
But that is not the completion of the large multi-paneled. Currently, 100 high school students from five North Country Schools (Beekmantown Central, Moriah Central, Ticonderoga High School, Boquet Valley High School, and Tupper Lake High School) have begun the task of coloring and writing in the names of past and present Northern New York Winter Olympians and Paralympians between the nearly 7,900 feet of lines that create the painting’s one-eighth of an inch squares.
When completed and assembled that painting will create a multi-leveled montage of information and objects – a visual art curtain separating the past from the future. The students’ contribution, Bradstock explains, represents the present and the new beginning of the next 100 years of the Winter Olympics and Paralympic games.
Bradstock is thrilled about the painting’s March 8 unveiling, calling it a painting of “historical significance.” He wishes that the North Country students’ involvement in the panel painting will provide a profound appreciation for the arts and sports. “It’s a learning tool that I hope will serve as an educational life’s lesson of collaboration,” he notes.
Olympism Art Journey Has Been Long For Bradstock
For Bradstock, the multi-paneled painting is a far and long journey away from where his career started. His memorable inspiration and quest within art and sports fittingly began a year before Three Dog Nights’ classic release. As a young boy in Hertfordshire, England, he found himself inspired to become an athlete while watching the 1968 Summer Olympic Games from Mexico City to one day becoming an Olympian, himself. A year (1967) earlier at the ripe old age of five, Roald had developed a passion for art.
There are certain similarities between becoming an athlete and an artist.- solitude, loneliness, and the humbling ability to accept failure. Bradstock persevered – both in the sport of athletics as a world-class Javelin thrower and in the field of art where he has gained international recognition. These two disciplines formed a bond in his endeavor for perfection. As a two-time Olympian (he missed a medal in 1984 finishing seventh in the Javelin) he is now an accomplished artist who has found an enthusiastic peace through his works of art and the new genre of “Olympism.”
While he still dabbles in athletic competitions often sporting a colorful hand-painted outfit and javelin, his passion for art has found a home within the Al Oerter Foundation’s premier program organization, Art of the Olympians. And as Executive Director of the organization, Bradstock feels blessed to find an avenue whereby he can lead a not-for-profit organization, promote the ideals and values entrusted within the modern Olympic Games, and inspire our country’s youth regarding art-in-sports.
“I am just thrilled to lead our foundation’s educational programs. And I can’t wait to see the reaction of students, parents, and guests who will see the spirit of collaboration of art-in-sports. They all should be very proud,” he exclaims.
Lake Placid, NY (February 10, 2025) – In 1969, the rock band Three Dog Night released “One is the Loneliest Number.” It would be among their greatest hits.
Fittingly, the group’s record title provides eerie similarities between one becoming an athlete and an artist where solitude, loneliness and a humbling ability to accept failure becomes the difference for becoming the best one can be. Roald Bradstock, a two-time Olympian and now an internationally recognized artist promoting a new genre known as “Olympism’, has found a way to escape and an artist’s depth of solitude and loneliness.
For Bradstock, “One” is no longer the loneliest number. Since joining in 2006 a group of athlete artists lead by former four-time gold medalist Al Oerter, known as the Art of the Olympians, Bradstock has been dedicated to the cause advancing the concept of art-in-sport. Today, Art of the Olympians enters its 19th year as the premier program body under the direction of the Al Oerter Foundation.
The education of youth about the ideals and values promoted within the modern Olympic Games is paramount to this organization’s creed and goals. Once taught primarily in a community group environment setting, the organization for which Bradstock serves as program leader, uses an educational classroom setting as a means for teaching how art-in-sports provides essential life lessons.
There is little room for “loneliness” now for Bradstock’s educational program. Classroom and group instruction have given way to community group sessions. And in just a few short weeks, the work of nearly 100 Northern New York high school art students will be unveiled on March 8 at the Al Oerter Foundation’s Olympic Regional student art-in-sports awards program at the Lake Placid Convention Center.
Giant Paneled Painting Embodies Rich North Country Sports History
Buried in his northwest Atlanta suburban art studio for nearly four months, Bradstock, known internationally as the “Olympic Picasso,” created a mixed-media 24-panel painting titled, “Together.” When assembled for viewing at the March 8 regional student art celebration, the roughly eight foot by 12 foot multi-paneled “mural” will celebrate the past 100 years of Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games – in particular the rich winter sports history which embodies the northern New York counties.
“Together” expands on what symbolically the Olympic rings literally represent. The mixed media painting embraces all the elements of the newly global recognized “Olympism” art genre with is subject matter that of repetitious visual styling and its timing of why, when, where, how, and who all created within the piece.
Within the multi-paneled painting’s 184,240 one-eighth inch squares includes the depiction of all flags of countries that have hosted the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the names of all Winter Olympic/Paralympic Games host cities, the names and icons of all sport disciplines within the Winter Games, the years for each Winter Olympic/Paralympic Game, the inscriptions of the Olympic and Paralympic mottos, and the names of the modern Olympic Games founders.
But that is not the completion of the large multi-paneled. Currently, 100 high school students from five North Country Schools (Beekmantown Central, Moriah Central, Ticonderoga High School, Boquet Valley High School, and Tupper Lake High School) have begun the task of coloring and writing in the names of past and present Northern New York Winter Olympians and Paralympians between the nearly 7,900 feet of lines that create the painting’s one-eighth of an inch squares.
When completed and assembled that painting will create a multi-leveled montage of information and objects – a visual art curtain separating the past from the future. The students’ contribution, Bradstock explains, represents the present and the new beginning of the next 100 years of the Winter Olympics and Paralympic games.
Bradstock is thrilled about the painting’s March 8 unveiling, calling it a painting of “historical significance.” He wishes that the North Country students’ involvement in the panel painting will provide a profound appreciation for the arts and sports. “It’s a learning tool that I hope will serve as an educational life’s lesson of collaboration,” he notes.
Olympism Art Journey Has Been Long For Bradstock
For Bradstock, the multi-paneled painting is a far and long journey away from where his career started. His memorable inspiration and quest within art and sports fittingly began a year before Three Dog Nights’ classic release. As a young boy in Hertfordshire, England, he found himself inspired to become an athlete while watching the 1968 Summer Olympic Games from Mexico City to one day becoming an Olympian, himself. A year (1967) earlier at the ripe old age of five, Roald had developed a passion for art.
There are certain similarities between becoming an athlete and an artist.- solitude, loneliness, and the humbling ability to accept failure. Bradstock persevered – both in the sport of athletics as a world-class Javelin thrower and in the field of art where he has gained international recognition. These two disciplines formed a bond in his endeavor for perfection. As a two-time Olympian (he missed a medal in 1984 finishing seventh in the Javelin) he is now an accomplished artist who has found an enthusiastic peace through his works of art and the new genre of “Olympism.”
While he still dabbles in athletic competitions often sporting a colorful hand-painted outfit and javelin, his passion for art has found a home within the Al Oerter Foundation’s premier program organization, Art of the Olympians. And as Executive Director of the organization, Bradstock feels blessed to find an avenue whereby he can lead a not-for-profit organization, promote the ideals and values entrusted within the modern Olympic Games, and inspire our country’s youth regarding art-in-sports.
“I am just thrilled to lead our foundation’s educational programs. And I can’t wait to see the reaction of students, parents, and guests who will see the spirit of collaboration of art-in-sports. They all should be very proud,” he exclaims.