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PHOTOS: TERRENCE FOGARTY FEBRUARY.2016 // MINNESOTAHOCKEYJOURNAL.COM 19 After graduating with a fine arts degree from Southwest Minnesota State, the St. Paul native eventually got into the business of painting. He's been illustrat- ing with a brush ever since. "I guess 35 years later, here I am," Fogarty said. Where the 55-year-old Fogarty is now is at the peak of Minnesota's sports-art industry. He has become one of the more recognizable artists in the state. His paintings of local athletes—both profes- sional and amateur—as well as arenas from all over the state have their own distinct style. Many of them have had commercial success, with some paintings selling for thousands of dollars. Though Fogarty does paintings of all sports, as well as subjects outside of the sports world, hockey has been his most prevalent—and in a lot of cases, his most successful. He estimates he's done about 80 or so hockey scenes over the years. With his paintings span- ning three decades, Fogarty admits he doesn't have a favorite; he insists whichever piece he's currently working on is his favorite. He also notes that just because a painting is commercially successful doesn't mean it's neces- sarily one of his favorites. Given Fogarty's affinity for using hockey as a subject for his paintings, it made sense that his artwork would eventually find its way into the annual tradition that is Hockey Day Minnesota. Fogarty has been commissioned to do paint- ings for several versions of the event, including Hockey Day Minnesota 2016. Two years ago, Fogarty had the idea to do a painting of the Handke Pit in Elk River, where Hockey Day Minnesota took place in 2014. After the success of that painting, Fogarty did a painting of a soldier returning home to see his son, a young hockey player. Though that work wasn't directly tied to Hockey Day Minnesota, it fit the event's military theme in 2015. Hockey Day Minnesota 2016 is being hosted in Duluth. It's the 10th year of HDM since the first event back in 2007 in Baudette. As with many other Hockey Days, Fogarty's work will be a staple of the latest HDM. "The first Hockey Day, the Minnesota Wild commissioned me to do a painting of the event," Fogarty said. "So I went up to Baudette prior to the event and did some research with some kids up there and ended up coming up with an idea for a painting, which they printed. That was pretty successful." Fogarty swears he "wasn't an athlete by any stretch of the imagination" but many kids in his neighborhood would skate and play hockey on the local rinks. It's those early memories of out- door hockey that helped Fogarty find his niche depicting hockey scenes on canvas. "The neighborhood at that time, there were a lot more kids out on the hockey rinks then," Fogarty said. "It probably gave me a lot of inspi- ration for the hockey pieces I do." The process of each painting is different for Fogarty. Some take him 10 days, others take closer to 10 weeks, it often depends on the size and scope of the piece. Regardless of how long it takes him, each painting starts out with an idea, which usually turns into some research on Fogarty's part. Fogarty will often have kids or athletes model for him for a photo or a sketch before the paintbrush hits the canvas. Such was the case a few years back when he went to the Handke Pit prior to Hockey Day Minnesota to have a few local hockey players help him create his image that was later used for HDM. On Fogarty's website, he says he's "comfort- able being a dinosaur in the way I relate to sports and art." In part, he's referring to the mediums in which he works. Many images these days are digital, something that didn't exist when he started painting in the early 1980s. To this day, Fogarty remains a purist—just paint and a paintbrush. "I know a lot of images now are computer generated, but I think for me it's still enjoyable and a lot of people enjoy seeing a painting hung on the wall that they can actually see some- thing," Fogarty said. "They can get up close to it and see paint and things like that. I think while it's certainly gone the other way as far as images being more digital, created digitally, I think there's always going to be a niche of people who like paintings." Fogarty's paintings have stood the test of time in large part because of the emotions he's able to elicit with his works. There's a connec- tion that people feel when they see his art, particularly as it relates to sports. Perhaps they think of their own childhood spent skating on a Minnesota lake or a backyard rink. In a hockey-rich state like Minnesota, there's a particular appeal to anything hockey-related that Fogarty does. That hasn't changed in his 35 years, and it will likely be the case for as long as he paints. "I'm fortunate that I live in a state that appre- ciates hockey so much," Fogarty said. "They really seem to love the images of hockey, and I'm grateful for that." "I'M FORTUNATE THAT I LIVE IN A STATE THAT APPRECIATES HOCKEY SO MUCH. THEY REALLY SEEM TO LOVE THE IMAGES OF HOCKEY, AND I'M GRATEFUL FOR THAT." Paintings, like Fogarty's "Rats on the Rainy" depict more than just a hockey game; they depict a hockey lifestyle