Not Your Normal Table Hockey

One thing I always enjoyed as a kid is having friends over to engage in table hockey. You're likely aware of the game that feature plastic pieces made to look like hockey players attached to pegs connected to arms that moved the players north-south on the board. The players featured were from all sorts of teams, but what if the game focused on one specific player in a completely new way that I'm sure none of us ever thought possible? I know I didn't, but an email I received had me looking at table hockey in a whole new light!

The email I received last week from a gentleman named Anthony Mars Jenkins. While his name wasn't familiar to me, it would soon be something I was searching via Google as he included a few pictures, including the one to the right, of his artwork that he's producing on table hockey boards! Being that I was a Lemieux fan as a kid and imagined the Penguins playing in place of those hated Maple Leafs on my table hockey board, my interest was certainly piqued so I decided to take a closer look at this artwork and give him some space on this blog. I will add that since my art skills are limited to stickpeople at best, I am in awe of those who can make art as well as this, and Mr. Jenkins certainly has great skills when it comes to hockey art on table hockey boards of players you likely know from NHL lore.

Anthony Jenkins, seen to the left, is a Toronto-born artist who attended at the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and English before taking a position with The Globe & Mail newspaper where he was a cartoonist, illustrator, and writer. Mr. Jenkins has also been an avid traveler, having visited six of seven continents with the exception being Antarctica - I'm sure he's planning something to cross that continent off the travel plans at some point as well. Mr. Jenkins' artwork have been published in a book titled A Fine Line, published by Nestlings Press, where one can find caricatures of many celebrities and well-known folks drawn by Mr. Jenkins. Today, Mr. Jenkins calls Mono, Ontario home, and he spends his time there drawing, painting, writing, playing hockey, and keeping bees.

When you see these pieces of artwork known as "Game Faces", it's remarkable how well Mr. Jenkins has captured the player's facial identity while not sacrificing the image in any way due to the table hockey's required holes to move the plastic players. You can clearly tell that the image to the right is former Maple Leafs legend Wendel Clark regardless of where those holes in the boards are. The uniqueness of the canvas chosen by Mr. Jenkins provides a true hockey feel to each painting, and the boards used by the game give nearly a perfect frame for the picture he's painted as well. The colours for each painting pop off the fairly white background of the table hockey ice, so the player featured in each painting is to what the eyes are drawn. This feature becomes very noticeable on the webpage showing all Game Faces as the table hockey boards sort of fade to the background rather than being as prominent as one might think.

If you clicked the link above, you may have noticed the $900 price tag for each one of the Game Faces artwork. Yes, that's a tad rich for my blood at first sight, but we need to consider some factors when that sticker shock may hit. This isn't just your normal piece of framed art after all.

First, the process of creating one of these pictures is 10-12 hour effort by Mr. Jenkins. That's no small undertaking by any means, and you are paying for a unique piece of art by a fairly reknowned artist. Let's not forget that.

Second, I was curious as to where Mr. Jenkins acquires all of these table hockey games to do the artwork on, and he informed me that he painstakingly acquires them through garage sales, Kijiji sales, and other second-hand establishments who may have them. That, too, requires time, effort, and money, so include the cost of acquiring said table hockey game in the pricing as well.

Third, these are basically framed pictures that arrive, so those who purchase them don't need to worry about framing costs once the painting in in their possession. Instead, the cost of the frame built into the board hockey game, so whatever the cost of framing would be is also included in that pricing that Mr. Jenkins has set. This is especially important when one considers the size of the picture because a framing of that size would cost a few dollars.

All considered, maybe that $900 price tag isn't as scary as it seems, right? In fact, check out a quick video of Mr. Jenkins going through the process of creating a Roberto Luongo Game Face painting on a table hockey board. You can see that there's a pile of work that goes into not only getting the painting right, but framing it right, positioning it on the board correctly so that main facial features aren't "erased" by the table hockey board's holes, and much more. After viewing the video, you're getting the artwork, the framing, the positioning, and the uniqueness of the one-of-a-kind picture all for $900. Most art dealers would tell you that's a steal in the art world!

If you're hunting for something unique, something one-of-a-kind, something really special for a hockey fan this holiday season, Mr. Jenkins' Game Face artwork might be a good option. Yes, $900 during a pandemic is a pricey gift for many, so I implore you to be wise with your spending. But if you have the means and want to surprise your hockey fan with something cool, this might be the gift you're seeking!

Maybe this hockey art isn't your idea of hanging wall art, though. If tha's the case, perhaps Mr. Jenkins can help you there as well as he offers many other pieces of art on his website that might interest you. Whatever you choose, know that you're getting a unique piece of artwork that was made in Canada and will help a Canadian artist continue to produce other amazing works! That's the kind of "Made In Canada" story that should make anyone smile, and certainly needed to be added here on HBIC!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!