Duffy’s Penn State Illustrations Are Worth a Million Words | News, Sports, Jobs

Photos courtesy of ART OF WORDS
Artist-illustrator Dan Duffy holds up a unique illustration of Penn State’s Beaver Stadium.

UNIVERSITY PARK — Dan Duffy never feels at a loss for words, especially when it comes to creating stunning images of iconic people, places and moments in history.

The Philadelphia artist’s unique illustrations stir up precious memories and touch the hearts of their viewers. Especially the Penn State series, which Duffy created by meticulously handwriting meaningful words.

Such is the life of a word artist.

“It all started with me wanting to impress a girl” Duffy recalled founding his company, Art of Words. “I didn’t have a lot of money. I didn’t have a nice car. I figured this was the best way to impress her. Now we’re married, so I guess it worked.”

In 2008, he transcribed every game of the Philadelphia Phillies’ World Series championship season to win the heart of his girlfriend. He took the artistic concept to the streets of Philadelphia, selling copies at tailgates at Citizens Bank Park.

Fast forward to today, and that girl, Jess, is now his wife and they have two kids. Speaking of which, the concept of word art has caught on, and Duffy has become famous for his handwritten pictures.

“I didn’t expect so many other people to like it too” Duffy added. “I really wanted to put together art that was different, that connected with people. The passion that people have for where they come from is inspiring.”

Happy Valley included.

Most Nittany Lion fans would salivate at the thought of buying any of his three works of art. There is “Beaver Stadium – Penn State Wins” This is a hand-painted painting featuring the date, opponent and score of every Nittany Lions victory from the opening of historic Beaver Stadium in 1960 through 2018.

A total of 512 matches, including both national championships.

Duffy created the painting to represent one of the greatest experiences of college football – the White Out match. His portrait captures the moment when the Blue Band lines up to greet the players as they run onto the pitch.

“My favorite part is when you get to the point where you’ve added enough words and layers and the image finally starts to reveal itself.” he explained.

From research to completion, each piece takes Duffy at least 50 hours, he says. “more ambitious works” requiring 150 to 200 hours.

Is “Penn State – We Are” which is handwritten with teams, majors, clubs, organizations and places. Of course, this graphic honors the famous “We are” a phrase that echoes through Beaver Stadium during many games.

At the end, “Nittany Lion – Penn State Fight Song” is a hand-written piece of art based on the words of a battle song.

“I make art with words, it’s a bit of a crazy thing to do” Duffy said, “But what I love about it is that every letter is important. It’s about how they all work together to create the image.

“Every line, every stroke of the pen must be done with intention” he added. “And then the fun is finding words that will have meaning to the person reading them.”