DENVER — The Colorado Avalanche are celebrating culture in a brand new way this season. For the first time, the team is providing jerseys to local artists and allowing them to create art that reflects who they are and their community.
Avs Vice President of Marketing Meredith Lavery called it the "Jersey Artist" series.
Artist Jazz Holmes is working on a Black History Month piece for the series. Lavery said Holmes was chosen because of her "vibrant" work that includes "bold colors."
Abstract, mixed-media use of color is something Holmes considers her signature.
"My work is as colorful as I can possibly make it," Holmes said.
Holmes said when the Colorado Avalanche reached out about recreating a jersey in celebration of Black history, she knew she wanted to highlight a Black NHL player.
She said finding one with ties to Colorado limited her options in ways she didn't expect.
"When I was asked, I realized I didn’t know a single hockey player that was Black," Holmes recalled. "That didn’t even pop into my head. I can name a couple famous hockey players, but none of them are Black people and that’s a huge issue for me because you don’t feel like you have a connection to that sport and you should. 'Cause they exist and they're out there."
Holmes settled on Jarome Iginla, Avs player from 2014 to 2017, who scored his 600th goal on Colorado ice while wearing number 12.
"All the pictures I saw of him, he just seems like a really happy person," Holmes said. "Like he’s just smiling all the time, making jokes and that’s just a really cool energy that I want on the jersey."
Holmes has a lot of plans for how she's going to incorporate Iginla's legacy into the jersey and some inspiration from the Black American Heritage flag.
"I plan on actually gilding parts of this jersey in gold and lightening this red a little bit and then adding black to it," Holmes said. "So changing the colors a bit to show off that flag, but then making him this colorful centerpiece on the back that just pops out from those colors. He seems like a colorful personality and our culture is just so colorful whether it’s about food, music, expression, I need to bring that in there."
But most importantly, she said she wants to use the opportunity to recognize the diversity in a sport where most may not think of minorities first.
"I think it’s really cool that I get to actually interact with and hopefully uplift Black players in this sport because it’s still a sport that a lot of Black folk don’t feel like they have access to or they are not allowed to like and that doesn’t make sense to me," Holmes shared.
The Avalanche said Holmes' jersey will be displayed in the first-level concourse east atrium at Sunday, Feb. 18's home game. It's set to stay up through the end of the month.
Lavery said Holmes, herself, will also be recognized during Saturday, Feb. 24's game during one of the intermissions.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Telling Black Stories