{"id":2070,"date":"2019-01-15T05:29:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T09:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/pr\/?p=2070"},"modified":"2026-07-13T22:26:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T02:26:44","slug":"pro-wrestler-ric-flair-owns-a-brad-hudson-original","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/pro-wrestler-ric-flair-owns-a-brad-hudson-original\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro wrestler Ric Flair owns a Brad Hudson original"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Ric Flair with his Brad Hudson original<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pro wrestler Ric Flair owns a Brad Hudson original<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday, January 15, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be the man, you have to paint the man – or more precisely, paint a portrait of the man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The portrait subject is legendary pro wrestler Ric Flair; the painter is UMES art professor Brad Hudson<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two became social media acquaintances in 2018 after Hudson crafted an interpretive drawing of the (retired) Nature Boy that he gave as a birthday gift to a friend. On a whim, Hudson also posted the image online and tagged the \u201cstyllin’, profilin’ \u2026 son-of-gun\u201d hoping to get Flair’s attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It worked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flair reached out to Hudson with a compliment, and inquired whether the founder of UMES’ sequential arts program<\/strong><\/a> might consider doing a second portrait. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was saying how he liked my work,\u201d Hudson said, \u201c… and that he wanted a piece for his house.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After some initial hesitation, Hudson concluded the overture was legitimate and the two subsequently established a private online dialogue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFlair is a larger-than-life character,\u201d Hudson said, so he jumped at the opportunity to fulfill the request. Hudson sent Flair preliminary sketches to get the project rolling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hudson has a studio in his Mardela Springs home, but the Flair portrait was visible in the Thomas & Briggs Arts and Technology Center on campus, where UMES students could watch progress on the 18-X-24 inch oil painting take shape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI try to demonstrate (to students) good practices of a working artist,\u201d Hudson said. \u201cHow it’s important to meet deadlines, make connections and engage in networking to get your name and your work out there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hudson’s work\u00a0IS<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0out there, alright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sequential art professor Brad Hudson<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

He’s a licensed Star Wars illustrator<\/strong><\/a>, a coveted designation that evolved from a chance meeting with a trading-card company representative who recruited him to create one-of-a-kind images to promote the 2015 film, \u201cThe Force Awakens.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That exposure led other marketers to enlist him to do collectible drawings, such as AMC’s \u201cWalking Dead,\u201d the Netflix series \u201cStranger Things\u201d and installments in Marvel’s film series such as \u201cAvengers Infinity War,\u201d \u201cGuardians of the Galaxy II,\u201d \u201cThor Ragnarok\u201d and \u201cSpiderman.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hudson estimated he spent 10-to-12 hours on the Flair painting, which he mounted in an ornate gold frame emblematic of Flair’s over-the-top ring persona that included wearing sequined robes into the \u201csquared circle.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hudson sent it off in early December. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Dec. 19, Flair posted a photo of himself online, standing in his Atlanta-area home holding the Hudson portrait. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank You To Brad Hudson For The Phenomenal Fan Art,\u201d Flair wrote. \u201cLove It! WOOOOO!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media being the echo chamber it is, Hudson quickly was overwhelmed by best wishes and congratulations from friends and professional acquaintances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ve gotten a lot of attention from wrestling fans,\u201d Hudson added. \u201cMy (late) dad would have been amused by this whole situation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

UMES’ Brad Hudson: Artist to the Stars. Wooooo!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pro wrestler Ric Flair owns a Brad Hudson original Tuesday, January 15, 2019 To be the man, you have to paint the man – or more precisely, paint a portrait of the man.  The portrait subject is legendary pro wrestler Ric Flair; the painter is UMES art professor Brad Hudson.  The two became social media acquaintances…Read more Pro wrestler Ric Flair owns a Brad Hudson original<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-2070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2070"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/scm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=2070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}