Otara artist creates tribute to legends
There is no escaping Jonah Lomu, Joeli Vidiri and Tana Umaga at Steelers’ training these days.
The three Counties Manukau rugby greats now inspire the new generation of players from a mural covering one of the walls of their training base in Drury, a place players affectionately call the Mill.
The work is the masterpiece of Otara artist Joe Lane who has been drawing since childhood.
A friend and his collection of work on Instagram helped him nail the job.
‘‘It all came about by word of mouth really,’’ Lane says.
‘‘A good friend of mine from school told me that his cousin, Sherwin Stowers was looking for an artist. He showed Sherwin my Instagram page and straight away he was like I want this guy. The rest is history.’’
Stowers, the New Zealand Sevens representative and Steelers’ stalwart with 68 caps to his name, met up with Lane and arranged for him to look at the wall.
It scared him. This commission would take him out of his comfort zone. Everything he had done before had been ground level. This one was not. It was high up on a wall.
‘‘How on earth I was going to do it, I wondered. I was excited and really keen but I needed to work out how I was going to get all the way up there,’’ was Lane’s initial thoughts.
Steelers prop Sean Bagshaw came up with the solution. He brought in a cherry picker from work. Problem solved.
Lane, a Fisher and Paykel employee, worked on the mural on Fridays and Saturdays only and it took him a month to complete. He was, by then, on a first name basis with the players and as of completion date, a full fledged member of the Steelers family.
‘‘Every time I come through the gates here at the Mill I feel like I am part of the team. The last couple of days of painting the mural I got sad because I had no excuse to come back. I’ve actually put my mark here and it’s been great to meet the players and management.
‘‘I know how much this place means to the team and this wall is nothing compared to what they go out and do on the field. But it’s pretty much a tribute from me to them.’’