Post by wiesyfan on Feb 3, 2012 14:38:26 GMT -5
Wow, nice painting of Michelle first win! The artist is very talented.
www.lucytormey.net/2012/02/01/the-monarch-michelle-wie/
The Monarch & Michelle Wie
February 01, 2012 ( No Comments )
I heard recently that the painting I made of Michelle Wie’s maiden LPGA victory at the LOI in Guadalajara 2009 is hanging in her parents home. I had a great holiday in Guadalajara that year and it was a special treat to witness the first win of a world class player. I had watched Wie practice on the range and was intrigued at how she practiced around a fairly flat swing plane, clipping her follow through – controlled, clean and powerful. I didn’t take any photographs, but in the studio a week or so later, one of my strongest memories was of Wie, holding off that finish to her swing. My intent was to capture the essence of thing rather than accurate representation. I enjoyed making the image and the full story follows.
The Metamorphasis of Michelle Wie.
“Every time I see Michelle Wie, I see a butterfly.” My mother said it, near the back of the fourth green. We were in Mexico at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The tournament was billed as having 36 of the LPGA’s top ranked players competing on the home course of the worlds No. 1 golfer. Four days of golf, no half-way cut, great weather and a vibrant local culture to explore. We (Mother, Father, Daughter & family Friend) booked 9 months in advance and spent every one of those months in adventure anticipation mode. For example, should you have been skiing in Lermoos, Austria, on St. Patrick’s day 2009 you may have heard shouts of ‘HOLA JALISCO’ echo around the alpine peaks as a couple of skiers passed each other on the slopes. If you called to the art room of a certain day-care centre in Mullingar, Ireland, on a Monday or Tuesday afternoon you might have wondered why the tutor would slide the volume levels to the max on the iMac G5 when the MEXICO song came on. If you listened intently you’d have detected a quickened heartbeat and if you’d looked you’d have observed a quiet expression of joyful expectation.
In the Fiesta Americana Grand Country Club, a glossy hotel magazine held an interesting story about ‘a spectacular natural phenomenon’, the migration of the Monarch Butterfly. Incredibly these fragile insects undertake an epic round trip journey traveling distances of 1500 to 2600 miles each way from the southeast of Canada and the northeast of America to overwintering sites in central Mexico. Here these brightly coloured creatures hang out among the trees for five months before returning northwards to embark on a new cycle of life.
As Michelle Wie settled into her stance in a greenside bunker on the eighteenth hole on the final day of the tournament she stood on the cusp of a defining moment in her own epic and turbulent journey. Ten years after qualifying for her first USGA tournament the stunning twenty year old with a world of promise in the palms of her hands, unfurled her magnificent wings, played a majestic bunker shot and emerged with the win that must prove a seminal moment for Michelle Wie and for women’s golf worldwide.
It was always Michelle Wie’s destiny to win an LPGA tournament and now free from the burden of claiming that first victory, she can chart a journey limited only by the scope of her own ambition and imagination.
The following morning on an 8am flight out of Guadalajara bound for Houston, a bedraggled troupe of holiday-makers found themselves sharing a 60-seater flight with a select group of the worlds best golfers as they migrated to the next stop on their work cycle. Michelle Wie and her parents sat in the row behind my seat. On arrival as we hauled ourselves out of our seats I caught her eye and offered congratulations. It was the perfect closure to a magical holiday. In the end, in some small way, perhaps it was our destiny to have witnessed such an important moment and how wonderful to have had the opportunity to say ‘well done’ in person. Now all I have to do is make the painting!
www.lucytormey.net/2012/02/01/the-monarch-michelle-wie/
The Monarch & Michelle Wie
February 01, 2012 ( No Comments )
I heard recently that the painting I made of Michelle Wie’s maiden LPGA victory at the LOI in Guadalajara 2009 is hanging in her parents home. I had a great holiday in Guadalajara that year and it was a special treat to witness the first win of a world class player. I had watched Wie practice on the range and was intrigued at how she practiced around a fairly flat swing plane, clipping her follow through – controlled, clean and powerful. I didn’t take any photographs, but in the studio a week or so later, one of my strongest memories was of Wie, holding off that finish to her swing. My intent was to capture the essence of thing rather than accurate representation. I enjoyed making the image and the full story follows.
The Metamorphasis of Michelle Wie.
“Every time I see Michelle Wie, I see a butterfly.” My mother said it, near the back of the fourth green. We were in Mexico at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The tournament was billed as having 36 of the LPGA’s top ranked players competing on the home course of the worlds No. 1 golfer. Four days of golf, no half-way cut, great weather and a vibrant local culture to explore. We (Mother, Father, Daughter & family Friend) booked 9 months in advance and spent every one of those months in adventure anticipation mode. For example, should you have been skiing in Lermoos, Austria, on St. Patrick’s day 2009 you may have heard shouts of ‘HOLA JALISCO’ echo around the alpine peaks as a couple of skiers passed each other on the slopes. If you called to the art room of a certain day-care centre in Mullingar, Ireland, on a Monday or Tuesday afternoon you might have wondered why the tutor would slide the volume levels to the max on the iMac G5 when the MEXICO song came on. If you listened intently you’d have detected a quickened heartbeat and if you’d looked you’d have observed a quiet expression of joyful expectation.
In the Fiesta Americana Grand Country Club, a glossy hotel magazine held an interesting story about ‘a spectacular natural phenomenon’, the migration of the Monarch Butterfly. Incredibly these fragile insects undertake an epic round trip journey traveling distances of 1500 to 2600 miles each way from the southeast of Canada and the northeast of America to overwintering sites in central Mexico. Here these brightly coloured creatures hang out among the trees for five months before returning northwards to embark on a new cycle of life.
As Michelle Wie settled into her stance in a greenside bunker on the eighteenth hole on the final day of the tournament she stood on the cusp of a defining moment in her own epic and turbulent journey. Ten years after qualifying for her first USGA tournament the stunning twenty year old with a world of promise in the palms of her hands, unfurled her magnificent wings, played a majestic bunker shot and emerged with the win that must prove a seminal moment for Michelle Wie and for women’s golf worldwide.
It was always Michelle Wie’s destiny to win an LPGA tournament and now free from the burden of claiming that first victory, she can chart a journey limited only by the scope of her own ambition and imagination.
The following morning on an 8am flight out of Guadalajara bound for Houston, a bedraggled troupe of holiday-makers found themselves sharing a 60-seater flight with a select group of the worlds best golfers as they migrated to the next stop on their work cycle. Michelle Wie and her parents sat in the row behind my seat. On arrival as we hauled ourselves out of our seats I caught her eye and offered congratulations. It was the perfect closure to a magical holiday. In the end, in some small way, perhaps it was our destiny to have witnessed such an important moment and how wonderful to have had the opportunity to say ‘well done’ in person. Now all I have to do is make the painting!