Alabama sports artist Daniel Moore

When Daniel Moore was a child, his mother would keep him occupied not with a television set, but with pencils and pens and watercolors. 

She was an art teacher and may have hoped that she could instill in her son a passion for art and expressing oneself through canvas.

That worked out pretty well. The name Daniel Moore is synonymous with sports in Alabama, specifically Alabama football. 

His latest work is called “Maximum Block.” It’s a painting that, like so many of his works, captures a moment, but also captures the essence of being your best and giving your all.

“I don’t know what the first thing I drew was, but the first oil painting I did was in the 5th grade was of George Washington,“ Moore said.

It’s a heck of a picture for a first picture for a 5th-grader. You know right off it’s our first president.

Today the figures in a Daniel Moore work looks like you could push the play button and they would come to life. His collection of work is more than art, it speaks of effort and determination, excellence and teamwork, and much more.

“Regardless of how well I depict something, regardless of how well I render something, if it doesn’t carry something and express something in my own heart and soul, then as an artist I think I have failed because that’s my number one intent,“ Moore said.

In 1979, Daniel Moore did the first piece of artwork that put him on the map: Alabama’s famous Goal Line Stand against Penn State. 

Daniel Moore had a cozy corporate job, but his passion was his art, and he took what he calls not a step of faith, but a leap of faith into unknown waters.

“I was trusting God that he would put some water in the pool before I hit,” Moore said. “I mean I couldn’t even see the water when I jumped off the high board into this.“

Asking an artist what his favorite work is might be like asking a parent which child is their favorite. You can’t choose.

“Every time I think that I’ve done something, then I think that is my best work because it should be,” Moore said. “So, I’m hopeful that it is… there are sentimental favorites, then there are some that I look at pretty objectively as much as I can in terms of the piece being fine artwork.“

And, then once in a while, there’s that play… the one everyone talks about… the play that invariably someone might say…

“I had a lot of people say right when they saw that, they thought that ought to be a Daniel Moore painting,” Moore said. “Don Kausler of The Birmingham News called it a Daniel Moore moment. I thought, ‘well that would be good if I could trademark that… a Daniel Moore moment.’“

And so it is… the next Daniel Moore work due out in January is called “Maximum Block.”

It’s the formation Alabama was in when Tennessee attempted a game-winning field goal.

“And, you had them giving maximum effort, for a game of maximum consequences if they’re going to go on and win a championship this year….so everything’s on the line, and these players are dog tired, yet they give their maximum effort and that’s a great lesson in life,“ Moore said.

“Maximum Block” is due out in January, but people who want to give it as a Christmas present will get a signed copy of this pencil sketch and then the finished work around mid January. If we know Daniel Moore, we know it will be good.

“And, as I get older, I’m supposed to be getting better, but don’t know,“ Moore said.