The Fine Art of Golf

Paint Strokes started as a very loose idea from a friend of mine. His thought was to create a work of art using golf clubs as the tool. The idea never stuck. When Callaway requested content for the new Customs club launch, the thought surfaced again. What followed was a product of shared curiosity, and an uncontrollable desire to create something different.

Conception

Execution

Re-touching

The Ammunition

Each plastic golf ball was cut in half and melted back together using a soldering iron in order to create a fault line around the circumference of the ball. This allowed the paint splatter to be more violent, yet controllable. A second smaller hole was cut in the top of the balls to inject the acrylic paint. That hole was also soldered shut.

Preliminary Exploration

Callaway Golf Headquarters

The main focus of the preliminary exploration was on getting the exact timing for the photograph and lighting. It was impossible to perfectly capture the moment of impact through human reaction alone, so we incorporated a laser remote. The camera and flash would be triggered on the downswing, milliseconds before impact.

The Results

With the laser trigger dialed, we cleaned up the mess from the prelims and prepared to execute. We experimented with both drivers and wedges. The outcome of this experiment completely exceeded expectations and lives as one of my favorite projects ever.

The Canvases

Custom decals were placed on the canvases as stencils and the background colors were applied. Once the paint splatter was complete the decals were removed to reveal the Callaway Customs logos. The nine colors used in the experiment were to represent all of the color options that were available through the Callaway Customs program.