decor of the tents was breathtaking. I looked around and thought ‘game on!’ So, I started making my own tailgate pottery. I also bought a couple of chandeliers for my tent. People would stop by and asked where they could buy pottery like mine. I proudly told them that they were my own designs.” Back in Texas, Seay missed her kids, but visits to Oxford inspired her to paint their favorite places on the Square. Jessica would hang the artwork in her apartment, where friends and sorority sisters noticed the charmingly accurate depictions of favorite locales. A few of the pieces were actually purchased right off her walls, but Jessica refused to part with “Old Venice,” “City Grocery” and “The Courthouse.” Andrew, however, requested that she create something a little more masculine — so Seay took up her brushes, this time with something very different in mind. “My son decided I needed to create the football paintings,” Seay said. “He felt I needed to create some ‘man’ art.” The acrylic paintings are dynamic and full of movement and conjure the excitement of the game as you look at them. They are also uniquely colorful; Seay’s use of reflected hues and shadows lends stunning dimension to her interpretations of the action on the field. “I majored in art, so I am crazy about color theory,” Seay said. “I like using ‘nonlocal’ color (a shading technique using varying colors) to create realistic images. I avoid black because black flattens out the images. Most of my shading is created in purples.”
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INVITATION OXFORD | SEPTEMBER 2019