“Everything came back to baseball,” Kyle Banister, former DU club baseball coach, said during an interview Friday afternoon. Though he is currently working on several murals for an assisted living center, preparing for the upcoming Denver Chalk Art Festival, and tending to several more irons in the fire, his message was clear: it always comes back to baseball.
Banister is a mixed media artist who has been specializing in baseball art for the past several years. He was recently commissioned to design and create a chalk art mural for the Colorado Rockies home opener, just one of many projects around Denver he is continuously working on.
His success as an artist has taken off in the last few years, although the journey was long as it was not until recently that he truly realized his dream of being an artist.
“It was always in me to do art. Growing up everybody always tells you, your high school counselors, teacher, other adults, your parents, about starving artists. They don’t mean to knock it, but they want their children to be successful,” said Banister about his beginnings as an artist. “The art was trying to get out, but I just kept pushing it back.”
After graduation Banister promptly joined the army, where his creative outlet took the form of painting pinups on trucks. From there he moved to the automobile industry where he designed advertisements and lettered race-cars for Subaru. He would then leave that business to build his own sign-making company. After 20 years running the business, it was finally time for Banister to make his dream a reality.
“I hit a couple bumps in the road, life wise, and the kids were all grown, so I said screw it, I’ll be an artist. I didn’t have any responsibility holding me back anymore.”
A long-time Colorado resident, Banister has his own roots at the University of Denver. During his time as a sign maker Banister met Jack Rose, the former DU baseball coach of 35 years, who upon hearing his story helped to facilitate a process which ended with Banister painting all of the fence signs at the now-defunct DU baseball field.
The connections did not end there, however. After Denver shut down their baseball team in 1997, Banister coached for the club team, helping the “outlaw Pioneers” to a conference championship game in 1998 before becoming the Denver Desperados.
Banister no longer coaches, but regardless, baseball and the art he does with it remains at the center of his life. It has certainly began to pay dividends for Banister in the past couple of years. Just two years ago he helped Root Sports win an Emmy for their broadcast, “Scoring the Game,” in which Banister created a scorecard featuring the likeness of Rockie great Todd Helton.
Success in his ability to sustain himself as a baseball artist is one thing, but for Banister the most important things are the life lessons and impact that both baseball and his art have made.
“To me, baseball is the greatest metaphor for life there is,” said Banister. “Any emotion you can experience, I’ve felt on a baseball field. I’ve been to weddings on a baseball field. I’ve been to a funeral on a baseball field. I think I’ve seen more honest to goodness miracles on a baseball field than I’ve seen in a church. And I don’t mean score wise, or from behind. Just little things. Life lessons and stuff. To me it’s a spiritual place.”
Banister revealed that this sentiment has carried over into his personal life many times, including the death of his father.
“The day my dad passed away we did the Tulowitzki piece for the Denver Art Festival,” said Banister. “We finished at noon so I could go to the hospice and be with dad. He was fading in and out, but we had the game on, and whenever they would break or come back from commercial they would show my daughter and I doing that Tulowitzki piece. Dad saw it, so that was some validation. You could tell that he had a certain amount of pride, and that was important to me.”
The game and his art have allowed Banister the opportunity to do amazing things and to meet amazing people.
Banister raved about his experience in getting to sit down with the late Hall of Fame broadcaster Jerry Coleman, and when he used to get to play ball in a Rockies uniform at Coors Field as a trainer at client batting practices.
His art has also allowed him to work side by side with players such as ex-Bronco Karl Mecklinburg, Gabriel Landeskog of the Avalanche and ex-Rockie Seth Smith at signings.
While baseball art has clearly been great for Banister, he maintains that his greatest moment as an artist has yet to come, like a journey man still waiting on his perfect game. He believes that it will eventually come though, as according to Banister, it is something he will do until the day he dies. While he lives, however, he lives a baseball life.
