Bensonhurst Native Son Sandy Koufax Memorialized In Wood

Loren Kantor lived in Brooklyn and growing up, Bensonhurst native son Sandy Koufax was his hero.

It was that apotheosis of the famous Dodgers pitcher in Kantor’s childhood home that led him to make a woodcut print of Koufax.

“I never saw him pitch, I was too young. But my dad would talk about him over and over, as if speaking about a Biblical prophet,” he told Bensonhurst Bean.

And if woodcut seems like an odd way to memorialize someone in this digital day and age, well, we thought so, too. But Kantor explained to us that that art form is about definitive-ness, which perhaps lends some permanence to fleeting memories.

“Something about the boldness of the lines and the old-school nature of the images. My grandfather was a Torah scribe.  He used to tell me, ‘One mistake and you have to start over.’  Woodcuts are the same way. One bad cut and you have to start over,” Kantor said.

The Koufax woodcut further evokes the idea of perfection. From writing Torah or carving wood to pitching a World Series shutout game, in each man there is an unmatched dedication to their craft.To see more of Kantor’s work, visit his website at woodcuttingfool.blogspot.com.