All Black history on one page of art
Shifting to Malaysia for a year has allowed a rugby-loving Nelson man to produce a print that compresses 142 years of All Black history into a single canvas. finds out more.
SSally Kidson
ometimes to make your dreams a reality you have to make some big decisions.
For the Watkins family of Nelson that meant moving to Malaysia for a year to focus, ironically, on their love of rugby.
Dad, Kyle, is a software programmer who is also an avid rugby fan and All Black fan.
Kyle says his idea for the rugby art print started when he turned to statistics to try and work out who would win the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
He borrowed all the rugby books from the Motueka and Nelson libraries and scoured the internet. Unable to find what he was looking for he took started crunching the numbers himself.
Kyle wanted to be able to show 142 years of rugby history in one visually digestible page – and his concept for the rugby art print was born.
Kyle says his idea for the print was so complex the project ‘‘took on a life of its own’’.
He decided to produce a print for each of the world’s top eight teams that would show the teams ups and downs over 142 years. It shows the results of tests between the top eight teams.
Kyle also wanted to look at who the top players for each team were and to see if statistics backed up the names that crop up in folklore.
He has used an algorithm he developed to compare players from different eras.
‘‘I wanted to know how successful each player was and wanted to see whose names popped up and did that fit with the names we know.’’
The top players, and coaches, are on the canvas and the size of their name shows the impact they had.
Sound complicated? It is. It represents more than 2500 hours of work and each print has over 10,000 data points.
‘‘As a software programmer of 20 years and having tinkered with graphic design, it took me a long time to work out how to get 142 years of rugby history, including around 500 test matches, all the cups they had won, the players and coaches all on to one print,’’ Kyle says.
‘‘Not only that, it had to be a work of art. To be so visually pleasing that you wanted to hang it on your wall at home, or your office or boardroom.’’
Kyle says he loves taking statistics and making it visually interesting, as the mind has an amazing ability to take in a huge amount of information visually.
‘‘That’s where that saying comes from, a picture paints a 1000 words.’’
Kyle says he started working sporadically on the prints, starting with his favourite team the All Blacks. After not making as much progress as they wanted on the prints, the family decided it was time to make a big decision.
Kyle had been offered a good job in Wellington and he looked at commuting to the capital, but realised his prints would continue to take a back seat.
‘‘Tanya woke up one day and said: ‘That’s it, let’s go and live in Malaysia for a year. It is cheap and we can focus on the prints.’’
They lived on a boat in Port Dixon for six months before shifting to Langkawi for a period so daughters Savannah and Ayla would have more company.
The family returned to Nelson two weeks ago and started selling their prints at the Saturday Market.
They see potential to expand their prints to include other sports, and have also been approached to produce company histories. Feedback from their first visit to the market was encouraging.
‘‘We are taking a big risk,’’ Tanya says. ‘‘We used all our savings, now we’ve got to start from the bottom up. But I think it’s been worth it. We believe in what we’ve done and we are passionate about it. As a family I think it has been worth it.’’