B.C. artist creates tearful portraits of soccer’s greatest stars: ‘They’re so vulnerable’

While World Cup fever has many Canadians’ eyes locked on the pitch, one B.C. artist is channeling that energy onto the canvas.

Karin Bubaš is known for her stunning large-scale photographs which have been exhibited globally.

Her latest project, Under Pressure, is composed of gentle, highly realistic pastel portraits of soccer stars brought to tears.

Bubaš joined CBC Radio’s North by Northwest to explain her motivation and process.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Why did you want to portray these emotional superstars?

My son plays soccer, and I was interested in these moments of pressure that these heroic players experience where all the lights and cameras are hot on them and there’s an incredible pressure to score, to get their team ahead.

And it seems like the more respected the player, the more likely they are to break into tears and show their emotion in front of the crowds. And I find it incredibly beautiful. Some of these are really happy moments and some of them are moments of defeat.

Tell me about the style you chose.

I discovered the impressionist pastel work in Paris and I just thought it was so incredibly beautiful in real life, the way the pigment glows off the surface and it just has this soft texture to it.

I’ve done a whole series of postcards that are available at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Eugene Chu, the Block Vancouver Special and the Audain Art Museum. And it’s just this fun way that people can collect and have a little piece of the work without spending a fortune on the originals.

How did you choose which players you wanted to to portray?

I really was just combing through the Internet, looking at various clips and trying to find moments that I could work from where the lighting seemed good and I had detail. It really just came down to that. And then I picked some of my favorite players.

Tell us about the portrait of Alphonso Davies.

This was drawn from just a few months ago in February, where he suffered a terrible injury in his Bayern Munich match. I find it fascinating, in these sorts of moments, that a jersey becomes this kind of like blanket or this, I don’t know, protective device.

He was clearly upset because not just the injury, he knew that this was going to affect his ability to perform for the World Cup for Canada. And then our whole country was relying on him.

I think he just means hope. And I like that he’s putting Canada on the map.

Who are some of your other favourites?

Lionel Messi, the greatest, one of the greatest of all time. This one was from their previous World Cup win. Years of dedication and this was the ultimate. And it was really beautiful to see him crying on camera again, trying to hide his face. You can’t see his eyes in my drawing, but his tattoos are what kind of give it away.

Thomas Mueller, he’s our Whitecaps hero now. So this is from when he retired recently from his team in Germany. And, you know, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. And so it’s a bit of an ugly cry, but I like it.

Luka Modrić. So my last name is Croatian. He’s the Croatian hero, captain of the team. This is when they came in second place in 2018 for the World Cup. So, you know, I’m sure he was happy that they they got a silver, but still frustrated that they came so close to the win.

What are you trying to say with this work?

The images are, they’re so vulnerable. And I think it’s beautiful to see these heroes and in these vulnerable positions.

Someone just wrote on a comment on my Facebook page and said, you know, ‘cry babies.’ And I don’t see it that way at all. That’s not what I’m trying to say with this work. I don’t want to make fun of them. I’m trying to say that they’re heroes and they’re empowering.