Every time the San Francisco Giants take the field at Oracle Park during the month of June, an upper deck suite turns into the studio of artist Jeremy Fish, the team’s first-ever artist-in-residence.
During the home games, Fish sits in the Cloud Club, hunched over a drafting table turning out his unique drawings that have made him an icon in his home turf of North Beach. His art fills the room where club members dine on hotdogs, grilled beef sandwiches and that baseball favorite: grilled broccoli.
“It’s a one-of-a-kind opportunity to have art being made while baseball is going on,” said Kelly Madonna, director of the Cloud Club.
It’s a new atmosphere for Fish, who’s previously done art residencies in San Francisco City Hall and Coit Tower and doesn’t consider himself much of a sports aficionado. Sitting before a wall of windows looking down at the game couldn’t be farther from the solitude of his North Beach studio, which doesn’t have a single window.
“There’s a good energy in a place like this where everyone’s here to have a good time,” said Fish. “Even if we lose.”
Though he may not necessarily bleed orange and black, Fish suits up for each game in a custom-made brown uniform with an old school-style Giants cap and a jersey with “Fish” printed on the back. His pregame ritual consists of eating a hot dog, drinking a coke and washing his hands. Sometimes he tries the broccoli.
He waits until the National Anthem is sung and “Play Ball” announced before beginning the day’s drawing, which he admits is sketched out in advance because the era of pitcher clocks has made the game too short for art. He aims to finish a drawing by the end of each game.
“Coming up with something I can draw in 2 1/2 hours and still have it be impressive is hard,” Fish said. “I’m not a fast drawer.”
The idea of stumbling on a guy making art in a corner of a ballpark could be jarring to sports fan, except in the exclusive Cloud Club, where members also hold business meetings while watching game. So the idea of someone drawing there isn’t quite as startling.
“Having this concept of an artist-in-residency here where people come in at the Cloud Club and lookin at, ‘OK, I want to watch the game, but then, ‘Oh my God, what’s going on over there?’” said Brian Bisio, senior director of the Giants Art Studio. “So it’s fun to have that interaction.”
Fish’s father and grandfather both tried out for the New York Yankees, and though they didn’t make the team, there is a long passion for baseball that runs through the Fish family, which included his Mets-cheering grandma. That gene seemed to skip over Fish, who prefers skateboarding to organized sports. Despite his lack of athletic prowess, the Giants asked him to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Skate Day. He floated a rainbow of a toss which landed precisely in the catcher’s mitt.
“Hey, he landed it,” said Bisio. “It’s one of the better first pitches in general.”
Fish himself was impressed with the effort.
“The only thing I’d thrown before that was like a snowball,” he said.
Fish’s series of drawings so far in the residency are abstract renditions of baseballs. One was a version of San Francisco’s flag with the city emerging from the baseball’s core. Another was a version of Crazy Crab, the Giants’ one-time mascot, whose short, controversial run was cut short when it was tackled by a pair of San Diego Padres players. The tale is a favorite of Fish.
“In my opinion, if the crab is still out there, that’s what he looks like,” said Fish, gesturing to his rendition of the crab, which boasts large muscles and prison tattoos.
Fish might not officially be a sports guy, but he appreciates the intersection of team spirit and civic pride. He recalled a day in North Beach after a Giants World Series victory, watching an old man with a cane embrace a young shirtless dude in the exuberance of the moment. Fish described it as a watershed moment in his own understanding of team fandom at a time when the city was combusting with tension over the ballooning tech industry.
“People started to argue, people started to point fingers,” recalled Fish. “Then we win at something, be it baseball or whatever, and it instantly gives people this unified thing to bond over.”
Up in his ballpark perch, Fish turns on a small transistor radio to hear the game’s play-by-play. Beyond that, he pays scant attention to the action of the field as he races to finish a drawing, which he releases on his Instagram and will be displayed once the residency ends.
“There’s thousands of people screaming and cheering and booing, it’s emotional,” Fish said, oblivious to a Giants’ scoring run with the bases loaded. “I think that’s a lot more fun to make art to than being by myself in a room.”
