Anthony Gharib, ESPN
A few years in the past, moos and oinks stuffed this glorious purple barn.
I’m ready within the geographical region of Sweden in Sävsjö, it served as an integral a part of a farm owned by way of Swedish artist David Gunnarsson’s grandfather. Now, the barn is the devoted section the place Gunnarsson paints the mask of one of the vital NHL’s supremacy goaltenders.
He’s arrange over one thousand sq. toes for his portray provides. Airbrushes and paint dominate areas the place cows and pigs as soon as roamed. He made it sunlit that there aren’t any animals round past he paints.
“Well, sometimes our dog will come and visit,” Gunnarsson stated.
For the presen 27 years, Gunnarsson has performed a key position in evolving goalie mask from featureless Jason Voorhees types into canvases of the whole lot from glow-in-the-dark artwork to Lego Batman.
His eye-popping and artistic designs are distinctive to the game of hockey.
Soccer avid gamers are incessantly secret at the back of helmets that endure the colours in their respective groups. Customized shoes or cleats with glorious colours are habitual amongst primary U.S. sports activities, but it’s uncommon for any individual to the touch them up with drawings.
Gunnarsson is among the go-to artists who continues so as to add a a laugh facet to hockey.
“It’s one of those things that you almost feel like a little kid again every time you get to design one,” stated Los Angeles Kings goalie Cam Talbot, who has labored with Gunnarsson for 13 years.
Over the years, Gunnarsson has painted for supremacy NHL goalies equivalent to Henrik Lundqvist and Dominik Hasek. Within the 2014 Olympic gold-medal fit, he designed the mask used by way of each goalies: Sweden’s Lundqvist and Canada’s Carey Price. He additionally lately designed a masks honoring Lundqvist’s induction into the Hockey Corridor of Status.
This season, Gunnarsson painted a pixelated Elvis Presley for Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins and combined 3-D and 2D artwork for a Statue of Sovereignty-themed masks for New York Rangers big name Igor Shesterkin.
Gunnarsson’s designs deal a deeper layer for goalies. Now not simplest do they really feel like youngsters once more, nevertheless it permits enthusiasts to be informed extra about who they’re as nation.
“I tend to see my masks as a way of showing a little bit more about myself,” Boston Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark stated. “I don’t have any tattoos on my body, but I live out my fantasies and ideas maybe throughout my masks, and that’s, you know, it’s very personal.”
BORN INTO A farming community, Gunnarsson started portray for native goalies in Sweden at 16 years worn. His first skilled goalie masks design got here when he used to be 19, by way of Swedish staff HV71.
Consciousness of Gunnarsson’s skill unfold, with extra supremacy native groups calling him.
“[They said] it’s the guy there in the forest painting masks,” he stated.
Gunnarsson’s recognition reached Ullmark, who admitted that, rising up, he would struggle to imitate Gunnarsson, the use of pen and paper to attract the mask the artist would paint.
“When I actually had the opportunity to work with him, it was an awesome experience and opportunity,” Ullmark stated. “Something that I always wanted to do when I was a little boy.”
As soon as Gunnarsson’s native purchasers began to travel to the NHL within the past due Nineteen Nineties, they sought after to paintings solely with him.
His first NHL goalie used to be Johan Hedberg, referred to as “Moose.” Gunnarsson served as Hedberg’s masks painter for 16 years, growing a couple of renditions of mask with a moose on them.
Gunnarsson needs to be as flexible as imaginable as an artist. Regardless of the request — whether or not it’s frightening or photorealistic or cartoonish — Gunnarsson prides himself on being pleased with it.
“I really tried from when I was a young boy to be as good as possible to paint anything,” he stated.
And his paintings proves it.
In 2015, Gunnarsson stunned then-Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Ben Bishop with a masks that had the Tampa Bay brand shine within the black. Bishop liked it such a lot he requested for all of the factor to shine within the black, which Gunnarsson replicated all through Bishop’s occupation.
Danish goalie Frederik Andersen incessantly sought after a Lego determine on his mask, for the reason that corporate is primarily based in his house nation. Gunnarsson luckily obliged with other variations, including an Anaheim Ducks-themed Lego guy when Anderson used to be with the staff.
This season, Gunnarsson painted a unique masks for Ullmark to mark the Bruins’ a hundredth annualannually season. Ullmark paid tribute by way of specializing in the supremacy avid gamers or moments from the ultimate century.
He landed on two well-known objectives — Bobby Orr’s in Recreation 4 of the 1970 Stanley Cup Ultimate, and Patrice Bergeron’s in Recreation 7 of the 2013 Jap Convention quarterfinals. Each moments are painted in stylized Bruins that seem on reverse facets of the mask.
“I might have my own insecurities about what the results [are] going to be,” Ullmark stated. “But in the end, whenever he sends over the finished product, I’m always blown away by how quick and how efficient, but also how detailed.”
A few of Gunnarsson’s supremacy mask have concerned customery actors and characters in TV displays.
Talbot lately asked a Will Ferrell-themed masks that comes with Ferrell’s well-known Ron Burgundy personality. Talbot knew Ferrell attended many Kings video games and stated Ferrell is certainly one of his favourite actors of all age.
“I watch every single one of his movies, doesn’t matter what it is,” Talbot stated. “I think I saw ‘Anchorman’ probably 50 times when I was in high school.”
Subsequently, a masks with Ron Burgundy on it wasn’t one thing out of the query. Kings apparatus supervisor Darren Granger informed Talbot nobody had ever executed a Ferrell-themed masks, so Talbot despatched the theory to Gunnarsson, who temporarily despatched a comic strip. Talbot presented enter, next Gunnarsson tweaked and painted it.
Actors have hopped within the procedure too. Gunnarsson collaborated with Michael J. Fox in 2015 to form a “Back To The Future”-themed masks for Lundqvist.
“I’m a huge movie nerd, and I love Michael J. Fox and the ‘Back to the Future’ movies,” Gunnarsson stated. “So it was like magic for me to do a ‘Back to the Future’-style mask, and Michael J. Fox was involved in it.”
In 2015, then-New Jersey Devils goalie Scott Wedgewood sought after a well-known Devils fan to be on his masks — “Seinfeld” personality David Puddy.
Within the 1995 “Seinfeld” episode “The Face Painter,” Puddy, performed by way of Patrick Warburton, confirmed off his Devils fandom with particular face paint. Wedgewood’s “Seinfeld” love brought about him to invite Gunnarsson a couple of Puddy-themed masks with the vintage Devils design.
It stuck the eye of Warburton’s spouse, who reached out to Gunnarsson for a reproduction.
“So David Puddy has his own Puddy mask,” Gunnarsson stated.
THROUGH ALL OF the particular requests, goalies credit score the artist for the way simple he’s to paintings with.
Adjustments will also be made till the ultimate month. Ullmark stated that ahead of Gunnarsson places at the ultimate coat, he’s going to take a look at in to form certain the comic strip is precisely what the goalie needs.
Arising with concepts will also be tough too, however Gunnarsson’s cooperation makes it more straightforward. He trade in enter but doesn’t enter the the dialog. His persona permits him to get a hold of concepts that higher swimsuit each and every goalie.
Talbot highlighted Gunnarsson’s talent to “just rip [masks] out.”
“He just loves what he does, and you can tell,” Talbot stated. “It comes out in his work; it comes out in his enthusiasm in the emails and stuff like that. But, once the sketch is agreed upon, he’ll literally paint the mask in a day and a half or two days. I don’t know how he does it.”
Gunnarsson’s main points are what free him from alternative artists.
There’s incessantly an difference layer to his designs that may simplest be recognized while you see them up near. From time to time, a picture of the masks is simplest part the image.
“The details, the intricacies that he puts into his art. The holograms in the background that you can only see in different light and stuff like that,” Talbot stated. “The depth to his designs are pretty incredible.”
However his have an effect on reaches every other stage.
Goalies stated that rising up, the masks designs drew them to the location. It added motivation to at least one week give you the option to design their very own. With the ability to get a hold of concepts and design the masks has a unique which means.
“It brings back those memories when you were young and dreaming away, of having your own mask and creating something that’s you and that is yours,” Ullmark stated.
