Illustrators’ passion for Expos comes through in their work

An example of the excellent Montreal Expos artwork done by Josée Tellier.

August 16, 2019

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

One hails from Iran, the other from Quebec's Eastern Townships.

Their love for Montreal's gone but not forgotten baseball team is steadfast in their work.

Dariush Ramezani and Josée Tellier have fascinated former Expos players and a host of fans across Canada and North America with their scintillating art work in this the 50th anniversary year of the Expos formation in 1969.

Artist Dariush Ramezani, shown here, is acclaimed for his full-length sketches of Montreal Expos players.

Ramezani is acclaimed for his full-length sketches while Tellier is drawing rave reviews for her portraits. Ironically, both Montreal-based artists began their tributes to the Expos this past January.

Ramezani immigrated to Canada five years ago with his wife Farnaz from Rasht, a town located on Iran's Caspian Sea Coast, not knowing anything about Montreal's sports teams but he sure got up to speed quickly.

"Walking around in Montreal, I’ve noticed clothes with different sport logos are so popular among people of all ages,'' Ramezani said in an interview. "As a sport fan, I started to spot logos, one after another: CH for Montreal Canadiens, NY for Yankees, B for Red Sox and after a while I could realize the Montreal Impact and Montreal Alouettes.

"Among those, there was one logo, something like a M to my eye, which I didn’t know yet. I asked one of my Montrealer friends about it and he told me about the Expos. The most interesting thing for me was the fact that there have been no Expos since 2004.

"People still actively talk about the team, and wear the garments with the Expos’ logo like on a real game day. They love their team and never forget it. This loyalty to the city team has been so touching for me. When I started my work as a graphic designer in a sports clothing company called Bulletin, I familiarized myself more with baseball and the Expos.''

When Ramezani found out from a reporter that this was the 50th anniversary of the Expos, he began his sketch work at the end of January and by June 6, he had finished drawing all 50 people, including founding principal owner Charles Bronfman. Ramezani is currently seeking a publisher to print his collection of 5x7 postcards.

"I did a lot of research and watched old videos on Youtube,'' Ramezani said. "My only source was to watch some games. Because it was something new, it took me 2-3 hours to do one sketch when I first started but with the last players, it only took one hour.''

Detail by detail, Romazeni gets to share your favourite Expos players and their stances, gestures, windups, deliveries and other idiosyncrasies right down to a T from head to toe. Tim Raines is Ramezani’s favourite Expo of all time.

If Andre Dawson's stance was his signature pose, then Ramezani (@dariushcomics on Twitter) makes sure that is evident in his sketches. It's his precise, concise work that makes him stand out.

Steve Rogers' arm motion caught Dariush's eye or Gary Carter's bat facing almost straight up. What is unique in his sketches are the ballerina-like feet each of his subjects has. For his text, he tends to use a Montreal Olympics font from 1976.

"When I was child, I was a big fan of soccer and that time was around World Cup 1982,'' Ramezani started to explain. "If you noticed, soccer players used to wear very small shorts and T-Shirts at the end of the 1970s and the early 1980s. In my eyes, as a child, they were heroes by very long legs dancing in the field like ballerinas. I used this imagination to draw the Expos players.

"On all of them, you can see a dusty texture, which reminds you of the old days. When I want to draw someone without focusing on the details of the face and make him or her recognizable by custom and gesture, I name it a custom portrait illustration or custom illustration.''

Josée Tellier, shown here, has become well-known for her artwork devoted to the Montreal Expos.

Tellier works full-time as an art designer for a Montreal clothing company and on the side, she's a freelance illustrator, working another 30 hours a week.

For much of the last 10 years, she has been designing a lot of book covers for authors and publishers and doing portraits of singers, politicians and many other figures. She’s been up in heels with her love for the Expos since she was eight years old.

"I thought it would be great to celebrate the Expos 50th anniversary. I was looking for a project to light up my heart,’’ Tellier said. “I did Gary Carter first. Carter was bigger than the Expos.

“It snowballed from there. Then I did Andre Dawson, my childhood idol. Oh my gosh, since I was eight or nine years old, he's been my idol. When he was at bat, I was freaking out. I loved Andre Dawson.''

To date, Tellier has done 25 of 50 Expos illustrations with the remaining 25 to be done by the end of October. Each painting takes about eight hours, depending on the quality of baseball cards and photos she uses as research material. Tellier is very meticulous and particular when it comes to detail.

"I do a lot of research of the eye colour,'' Tellier said. "Some of the cards and pictures are usually not that good. I've had great feedback from many players. The Expos stuff is my relaxing time. Twitter (@misstellier) has been a tremendous window for my work.

"I'm very, very proud. When someone writes to me and orders a print, I go to a print shop. My work was put on the big screen at Olympic Stadium for the exhibition games last March. That was the highlight of my career, oh my gosh. It was one of the proudest moments of my life, definitely. I'm very excited about all this Expos attention. The Expos hold a big place in my heart.’’

When Montreal gets its MLB team back, Tellier wants to be part of the excitement in the front office as the Expos merchandising head designer, a goal she posts on her Twitter profile.

"That's my ultimate dream,'' Tellier said. "I have so many ideas.''

Whether it's Ramezani's custom illustrations or Tellier's portraits, you have winners to hang on your wall or inside your trophy case. With autographs, even better.

Danny Gallagher’s latest book is Genius, a semi-biography of Rick Mauran, the founder of Swiss Chalet, Harvey's and Mackenzie Financial.