Last week I introduced Painting the Corner — a short series highlighting Cleveland Guardians fans and how they use baseball and the Guardians to inspire them in their artistic hobbies. For the first installation of this series, I thought of no better place to start than with Covering the Corner’s own Madelyn Novak.
For those of you who follow Madelyn on social media or listen regularly to the Caught Lookin’ podcast, it is well known that Madelyn loves middle relivers. That love has translated from her support at games to the canvas. Madelyn has been painting since high school, starting with water colors before moving into acrylic paints. She was initially drawn to paint after drawing with pencils and markers throughout middle school, but found that painting allowed her to mix colors and shade much easier.
When her fandom and love of baseball started, Madelyn wanted to make something to give to players, thus starting her journey into capturing players in paint.
Madelyn’s first “big” piece (top photo, labeled 2018) was of Adam Cimber. It was given to Cimber, Madelyn recounting that the submarine pitcher lit up when she gave it to him, when she met the pitcher. She, two years later, repainted the righty but has yet to be able to give him the updated version (bottom photo, labeled 2020).
Another piece that Madelyn painted was for former Angels LHP Andrew Heaney. After the passing of Tyler Skaggs, the below piece was painted, capturing her two favorite non-Cleveland players.
The last piece of Madelyn’s that will be featured she states is her proudest piece. Nick Wittgren, former right handed reliever for Cleveland, is Madelyn’s all-time favorite player. After Wittgren left the club following the 2021 season, she had not had a chance to see him until August of last year. Nick Wittgren and his family made the trek back to Cleveland for Nick to make an appearance at the 455 Club Meeting and subsequent games. At the event, Madelyn presented him the below painting. Nick shared that on the plane to Cleveland for the 455 Club event, Nick was watching the MLB Network. During a Baseball ASMR segment, there was a moment where Nick’s glove and cleats were shown. Which happened to be the same glove and cleats captured below.
When the idea of this short series came to mind, Madelyn was one of the first people I reached out to. Her paintings perfectly captures what I wanted to share through this series. That is, when the love of this game and the love of specific players is so strong that it manifests itself through creation. When talking with Madelyn about her paintings, she expressed her gratitude to the Wittgren’s for their kindness they’ve shown her as a fan during Nick’s time with Cleveland and after. That gratitude is made tangible in her paintings.
I hope you enjoyed this first entry and stick around for the upcoming entries. Baseball has a way of manifesting itself in the most unlikely ways, giving plenty more to explore and share in the upcoming weeks.