At 94, Frank Nareau has largely stepped away from the pencils that once consumed his retirement years, but his drawings are stepping into the spotlight again. Nareau, who stopped drawing when his eyesight declined, spent nearly two decades after leaving the workforce producing more than 1,500 portraits of athletes, musicians and public figures. Many of those images — particularly his baseball-focused pieces, affectionately called "sportstraits" — will be part of an exhibit opening at the Arizona Baseball Museum during a Summer Bash fundraiser next to the Mesa Historical Museum.
A Mesa artist (right) presents one of her baseball portraits to an Arizona Baseball Museum representative during a preview of the upcoming exhibit.
Museum officials say the June 27 evening will pair the visual display of Nareau’s work with live storytelling and conversation about Arizona’s baseball history. The event runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and will include opening ceremonies for the exhibit of his drawings. Tickets are $25, and proceeds are earmarked for the museum’s exhibits, educational programming and preservation efforts. They may be purchased in person, by calling 480-835-2286, or through the museum’s website at arizonabaseballmuseum.org.
Susan Ricci, executive director of the Mesa Historical Museum and a driving force behind the exhibit, said the night will offer more than the chance to view Nareau’s work. "Guests will enjoy behind-the-scenes stories, baseball memories, and insights into Arizona’s rich baseball heritage," she said, noting that the program will combine art, history and first-hand accounts of the state’s ties to the national pastime. Ricci added that Nareau himself is deeply touched by the attention. "He is sooo honored that we are showing off his work," she said, adding that the artist’s family reports it is all he talks about.
The Summer Bash’s conversation portion will be moderated by musician and baseball historian Bobby Freeman, who will lead a baseball discussion with two guests tied closely to baseball operations in Arizona. Dave Dunne, long-time general manager of Salt River Fields and manager of its spring training operations, will join Joe Garagiola Jr., who served as the original general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks and was part of the team during its 2001 World Series run. Organizers say attendees will hear personal recollections and insider perspectives that frame the state’s baseball story alongside the visual chronicle Nareau produced.
Nareau’s route to Mesa and to the art that would define his retirement began more than six decades ago. An Army medic during the Korean War, he moved west from his native New Hampshire after accepting a position as a pressman at what was then the daily Mesa Tribune. He had previously worked at the Claremont Daily Eagle. "I took art classes throughout high school," Nareau said, describing a solid foundation in public school art training. Yet, he added, while working as a pressman he produced only a handful of drawings for the newspaper, saying he made "probably less than a half a dozen" during that period.
Family life played a big part in delaying his artistic focus. Nareau and his wife Shirley raised six children and will mark their 70th anniversary this fall. It was only after he retired from Scottsdale Memorial Hospital in 1993 that he had the time and energy to devote himself to drawing. A lifelong sports fan, he gravitated toward athletes as his primary subject matter. "I love baseball, and I love sports in general," he said, and began producing finely detailed pencil portraits, typically working from photographs.
Using a simple toolkit — principally a 2B pencil and illustration board — Nareau rendered a wide range of subjects. His subjects included major league players, Negro League stars and figures from football and popular music. Some of his music portraits reflect contemporary performers such as Britney Spears and the Dixie Chicks, while he described The Eagles as a personal favorite. Over the years he sold pieces at swap meets and arts-and-crafts events across Arizona and donated works to charitable causes and baseball-related fundraisers. A surprise placement at Chase Field brought wider recognition when the Arizona Diamondbacks displayed a number of his works in vertical cases at the ballpark; Nareau still says he does not know precisely how his drawings came to be shown there.
The artist stands inside the museum’s exhibit space amid memorabilia and banners where her works will be featured.
Nareau’s drawings have found homes beyond local venues; some are included in the collection of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, while many others hang in private residences and businesses, including sports bars. Around 2010, worsening eyesight forced him to stop drawing, though he continues to follow the game closely. His ties to baseball predate his portraits: he was a devoted Brooklyn Dodgers fan long before the Diamondbacks arrived in Arizona, and his wife recalled family memories of weekends spent at spring training games at Mesa’s Rendezvous Park. "We grew up at the ballpark," she joked, and she said players would often come into the stands and sit with them, noting her husband "met a lot of the players before they became famous."
The Summer Bash will place Nareau’s baseball work at center stage, presenting the drawings that grew from an artist’s devotion to both his craft and the sport. The exhibit and accompanying program are meant to celebrate that intersection of local history, personal passion and the communal stories that have long tethered families like the Nareaus to the ballpark. The Arizona Baseball Museum is located adjacent to the Mesa Historical Museum at 2345 N. Horne in Mesa, where the exhibit will be on display as part of the museum’s ongoing efforts to preserve and present Arizona’s baseball heritage.