Fan takes artistic swing

PALM-AIRE — Even at 79 years of age, Palm-Aire resident Allan Weissman remembers the exact moment he turned into a baseball fanatic.

“I was 9 years old,” Weissman says. “That’s when I began to pay attention.”

He and his family were having their regular Sunday lunch at a Chinese restaurant and the 1941 World Series playoff game between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers was bellowing from the radio.

The Dodgers were ahead until the catcher made an error that kept the game from ending, allowing the Yankees to take the lead and go on to win four out of five playoff games.

Now, Weissman’s lifelong passion for the sport, combined with his love for art, has landed him a temporary home at the Braden River Branch Library, 4915 State Road 70, Bradenton. There, more than a dozen of Weissman’s original baseball-inspired paintings are on display for the public as an art exhibit titled, “Baseball World.”

Many of the images, he says, were inspired by photographs from newspapers or images he took himself at games — Little League or professional players in action; mascots or vendors selling peanuts.

“It covers almost 20 years (of painting),” Weissman says, noting he has about 50 baseball-themed paintings altogether. “It just kind of happened (there were so many on baseball). I’m a second-generation (baseball) nut.”

Although Weisman’s exhibit officially ends Oct. 31, much of his work likely will remain hanging in the library’s meeting room through early November, he says.

A retired dentist, Weismann also paints pictures of his grandchildren and landscapes, as well as religious scenes.

“I always did some kind of artwork,” Weissman says. “You should see the notebooks I kept in school. They were very well illustrated.”

Weissman always has painted, but says he especially treasured the five years he spent working on stained-glass windows for Temple Beth El of Bradenton because he had a studio on Old Main Street in Bradenton from which he could work.

“I was in my heaven,” Weissman says, noting he’d always dreamed of having a studio. “I was the worst artist in the place.”

Weissman stopped creating stained glass several years ago and began focusing on painting.

Weissman also says he believes Manatee County should have its own art museum one day soon.

“I just want a crack at one of the walls,” he says, smiling.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].