02/16/2005 The Almanac

Sports on Canvas by Margaret L. Smykla

Memo to Steelers players: you don't have to play in the Super Bowl to make it in the NFL Hall of Fame.
Just ask Johno Prascak. Five prints by the Dormont-bred artist hang in the professional football shrine in Canton, Ohio. The paintings are of Three Rivers: former Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw: "The Chief", Art Rooney, Sr.: Heinz Field: and one entitled "Steeler Sunday."
Prints of the latter three also hang in Art's Gallery in Heinz Field, name for the Steelers founder, and for which Prascak serves as lead artist.
Prascak, 45, created "The Chief" in 1989, a year after Rooney's death, working from photographs. To convey his passing, part of his face is missing.
The painting remained unseen in his parents attic until the gallery opened. He then showed it to the Rooneys. Who then bought the copyright.
Prascak retains the original of that painting along with "Steeler Sunday" while the original Heinz Field work, commissioned by the Steelers before the venue opened, hangs in the Steelers office lobby.
The Terry Bradshaw painting was purchased for $10,000.00 at the Dapper Dan Charities auction in 2003, with all proceeds benefiting charity.
The part-time bartender at Mario's on the South Side immersed himself in his art whenever he can. "it's my world," said Prascak of his brightly painted studio, a former gas station, at a busy Brownsville Road intersection on the South Side Slopes.
Works displayed there range from a painting of Mario Lemieux to the city skyline to a 9/11 American flag to "Hazelwood 1924" based on a tattered photograph of his father's family. One of those pictured in that painting is his Czechoslovakian grandfather, Johno for whom he is named.
Prascak estimated half of his work involves local sports, while the other portion in his life's experiences. He does commissioned work as well as projects of his own choosing.
But what all his paintings, of average size 4 foot by 5 foot, have in common is that they're created by mixing enamels with sand on canvas to create a textured, three dimensional look, a style which he thinks he may have invented.
While his collection of sand from around the world consists of about 400 vials, including sand from bullfighting arena in Madrid, Spain, and the pitcher's mound at Wrigley Field in Chicago, most of it comes from the Monongahela River.
prascak started painting at 23 after 10 years of suffering with ulcerative colitis, three of those years while a student at Keystone Oaks High School.
Following life saving surgery, he began by copying Picassos and Van Goughs form library books before settling on his blend of enamel and sand.
"When something bad happens look for the good"he said of the path which emerged as a consequence of the recuperation during which he had only his eyes and his hands for expression. He has never taken art lessons.
Today, Prascak lives on the Slopes with his wife, Maria, who designs and paints murals for her business, "Maria's Ideas", and who he credits with providing much of his inspiration.
For the past two months he has been crafting "PNC Park", about Pirates fans at the ballpark against a backdrop of the city, which he plans to show to pirates officials for the purchase or display at the 2006 All-Star game.
He worked from a few photographs he took, and drawings he made, while at PNC Park.
A completed work in his Arnold Palmer painting, to be donated to the 69th Annual Dapper Dan Dinner and Sports Auction on April 16.
His painting last year of former Pitt wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald was purchased by the star's father, netting the charity $6,000.
"I'll take this over anything alse", he said of his success. "I feel really blessed."
To view his work, see:www.JohnnosArt.com