Philadelphia “art of words” creator credits Phillies for launch of his business, meeting his wife
PHILADELPHIA - Dan and Jess Duffy’s love for Philadelphia sports floods through their Flourtown home through Dan’s art, with a special nod to the Phillies.
That’s not just because of their love for the team, but because they believe the team started their story.
"I do give credit to the 2008 Phillies, Brad Lidge thank you," Dan said.
Dan says in the spring of 2008 he was out of college but still living a "college lifestyle" in his late twenties.
"It was Animal House the movie in Conshohocken with all my rugby buddies, and I really wasn’t going anywhere fast, for sure," Dan said.
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He met his future wife Jess through a set-up date at Bahama Breeze and they quickly bonded over their love for the Phillies. Their dates consisted of watching games together and recapping afterwards.
They watched the World Series together that year, and the win reignited something in Dan. He says he wanted to get back to his art roots.
"Just being so happy, kind of inspired, I wanted to write out every game from the entire season, the date, the opponent, the score and see if I could create an image," Dan said. "I’m not sure if they didn’t win that year that I would create something."
Jess fully supported the spontaneous creation. They made prints of his "word art" and decided to bring them in a cooler to the 2009 Phillies home opener to try to sell them to tailgaters.
They started in Lot K, selling them for 10 bucks each.
"We had a cooler with the prints wrapped up, just rubber-banded," Jess said. "We didn’t even know how to present it to people, some people paid with beers."
"It was really the people of Philadelphia, the people that were tailgating they were just like, ‘Hey man, you gotta’ do Tug McGraw, so I have the set of both championships, where’s Reggie White you could write out all of his sacks?’’ Dan said. "Their belief in me and wanting to see more pieces, that’s what made me want to keep going for sure."
That’s just what he did.
After roughly two years of cooler sales, he got an MLB license which expanded his work, but also meant he had to create for all teams.
"Had to start doing Yankees and Mets, just hold my nose and do it," Dan said.