Braves painting housed
at Marietta museum gets
motorcyclist sendoff
BY SHANNON BALLEW
AND EMILY BOORSTEIN
A painting of Atlanta Braves Hall of Famer
and the Truist Park had an unusual sendoff in
January: more than two dozen motorcyclists
to escort it to its next location.
For two years, “Passing the Torch” by
David Uhl of Colorado was on loan to the
Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, said Sally
Macaulay, the museum’s executive director.
It depicts Braves pitcher Tom Glavine,
with his son, Kienan, pointing at a statue of
pitcher Warren Spahn in front of the ballpark
and standing behind a Harley-Davidson
motorcycle with a sidecar.
Why the motorcycle? Because the painting
was commissioned by Tomahawk Harley-
Davidson, which is in The Battery Atlanta,
adjacent to the Braves’ stadium, Truist Park.
Also, Uhl has been doing artwork for the
brand since 1993 and became the company’s
first licensed oil painter five years later,
according to the artist’s website.
The painting is meant to celebrate fathers
and sons and “their involvement in two
great American pastimes: motorcycling and
baseball,” Uhl’s website states.
The painting’s stay at the museum was
bookended by a number of bikers who are
also fans of the Atlanta-based Blackberry
Smoke, a Southern rock band. Two of the
band’s members were raised in Smyrna.
The band has been holding a motorcycle
ride charity for the past few years to donate
CL
n NEWS & NOTEWORTHY n
Left: With “Passing the
Torch” by David Uhl are,
from left: back row: Sally
Macaulay, executive director
of Marietta Cobb Museum
of Art, George Tingley,
Kevin Kennedy of CURE
Childhood Cancer, Douglas
Collins, Mark Augustyn,
Brit Turner, drummer for
Blackberry Smoke and Vince
Champion of the International
Brotherhood of Police
Officers. Front: Madeline
Beck, museum curator,
Jennifer Fox, the museum’s
director of operations, and
Chauna Wiggins and Kathy
Kemp of The Litas Atlanta
women’s motorcycle group.
Above: Mark Augustyn, left, and Douglas Collins
move the “Passing the Torch” painting out of the
Cobb Marietta Museum of Art.
to Cure Childhood Cancer. That event has
included a raffle of a signed print of the Uhl
painting.
The band got involved with Cure after
drummer Brit Turner’s daughter, Lana, was
diagnosed with Stage 4 neuroblastoma at just
3 years old. She recovered and is now 14.
Two years ago, the band created the
first Blackberry Smoke Ride for Cure, which
was hosted by Glavine and saw a group
of motorcyclists ride from the Tabernacle
in downtown Atlanta, where the band
performed a concert, up to Marietta to see
the painting when it was first displayed in
the museum, said George Tingley, one of
the organizers of the ride. The second year,
about 600 motorcyclists traveled from the
Tabernacle to Truist Park.
This year, the ride was canceled because
of the pandemic, but organizers continue to
raise money, including raffling off another
“Passing the Torch” print signed by Glavine
and Uhl. They plan to present the print to the
winner when they give the original back to
Uhl at Daytona Bike Week in March.
“We wanted to keep the conversation
going and not let people forget that children
are still fighting (cancer) today,” said Tingley.
About 30 bikers pulled up to the
museum once again to see the painting
off to its new temporary home, the
headquarters of Cure Childhood Cancer in
Dunwoody. Organizers will then return the
painting to the artist in March.
44 COBB LIFE | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021