William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Tim Cortes, a former University of Minnesota goalie who has become a successful commemorative artist.
Tim Cortes half-jokingly says he owes retired NHL goalies Robb Stauber and John Blue for his career.
Cortes was a backup goalie at the University of Minnesota in 1986-87 behind Stauber and Blue and never saw a whiff of action in an NCAA Division I game that season.
“I always tease that there were three of us,” Cortes said. “Two of us ended up in the NHL and one of us ended up in art school.”
The 57-year-old Duluth, Minnesota, native swapped his goalie sticks for pencils and paintbrushes and embarked on what has become a successful career as a commemorative artist.
His sports-themed works can be found at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington; inside Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins; on the exterior of the Essentia Duluth Heritage Center; and in the homes of several retired NHL players and their families.
The list of owners of some of of Cortes’ illustrations reads like a hockey’s “Who’s Who,” including Brett Hull, Mark Howe, Phil Housley, Pat LaFontaine, Chris Chelios, Mike Modano, Neal Broten, Tom Chorske and Stauber.
“Actually, my plan was to go into graphic design because it was just at the time when computer graphics was starting to take over in the late 80s, early 90s,” Cortes said. “This thing with fine art and doing portraits was working, so I just ran with it and, truthfully, for 35 years I’ve never been without work.”
Cortes, who is Filipino American, grew up passionate about hockey and drawing. He said when he and his siblings would visit their grandmother, they would be in one corner playing and he would be in another with paints and crayons.
