The Gallery of Crossed Destinies
Video Transcript: Aaron Kelton
Football is an art. We have our perspective, we have our philosophy, we have our skill sets. You know, we design plays and schemes and different things, so we consider what we do an art form.
All of the objects were just so wonderful; it was definitely a difficult decision. What I tried to do was evaluate how those objects made me feel and how they related to the theme of athletics.
The theme is “A View from the Coach’s Seat,” relating the artwork from the perspective of a coach. Basically, looking out the window and the different things that we see relating to athletics or our teams, and then a perspective of someone else looking in the window at us and saying, “Okay, if I was to watch Coach, what kinds of things would I see in his daily activities?”
The different pieces to me symbolize a lot of the different young men that I have on my team, the different characters on my staff, and the different characters that are here at Williams and in Williamstown. I think there is a direct relationship, so it would be leading the team like the buffaloes going over the edge and the calmness of all of that after your team has played and won, hopefully. The classroom part, where we talk about education and being able to be successful and believing in yourself. Also, the perspective of having all eyes on you, you get a clear understanding of what that is not only from the fan’s point of view, but also from your team, your colleagues, the community at large.
In terms of the words that will be on the wall, they’re the key words that we talk about in athletics all the time. In our business, we use a lot of quotes because it’s really snapshots of what we’re doing and ways to motivate our guys.
They’ll look at my exhibit and say this is done by a coach, but I look at what I do as a coach as an art form. It’s something different and special, so there’s a direct correlation between the art and what I do in athletics. I was a bit scared at the beginning when I was asked, because I’d never done anything like this, this is totally stepping outside of my comfort zone, if you will. But I always ask my guys to do that — I always ask them to step outside of who they are and experience new things. So I felt like initially it was a fear, but then I really have embraced it, and really I’m extremely excited about it and excited about the exhibition and really getting people here to see the way in which I think as a coach and how I was able to use my thought process to relate to artwork. I think that that’s an awesome, awesome thing and really fun.