Iron Bowl painters can support their teams
Fans and team supporters (or non-partisan artists) can ‘bleed’ orange or crimson in a painting class for the Iron Bowl, the state’s long-held rivalry between Auburn University and University of Alabama.
Adult services librarian Rachel Hooper will lead the class. She doesn’t know whether to expect more Auburn or Alabama fans. “It will be interesting to see how many fans for each college are in the class,” Hooper said.
“We know that football is huge in the South and thought this would be a good painting theme since the Iron Bowl is later that same week,” Hooper said. “We’ve had great turnout for painting classes before and thought this would be a fun one.”
Currently, the library has the Madison Readership Bowl for patrons. “For each book read, movie watched or CD listened to, patrons get a football and place it on the display for their favorite SEC team,” Hooper said. “People have really enjoyed showing support for their favorite teams.”
For the painting itself, Hooper will supply examples for each school’s painting, but participants can change it and paint any design that they want.
For Alabama, the example has a crimson, polka-dotted background with “A” in houndstooth; it reads, “You had me at Roll Tide.” The Auburn painting has polka dots in a gray background with “AU” and states, “You had me at War Eagle.” Decorated tiger paws embellish the lettering.
The class will use acrylic paints on canvas measuring 11 by 17 inches. No painting skills are necessary. “We just want people to have fun in a friendly environment,” Hooper said.
“My husband and I have painted various designs in the past. Each football season we hang our football-themed pictures in our living room,” Hooper said.
Class space is limited. Participants can sign up at hmcpl.org.
