a gentelman and an 'energy' artist...
"Oerter began his artistic dabblings in 1980 when Anheuser-Busch commissioned him and other renowned athletes to create works for the U.S. Olympic Team.
Each athlete had to use the equipment required in his or her sport - a hockey stick, track shoes.
Oerter had his discus.
Even though he'd never taken an art class, the Olympian walked into a white room with white floors and a long canvas in the mecca of the art world, New York City.
Oerter announced to onlookers he wanted to express on canvas the energy of his sport.
Oerter used the discus like a makeshift brush to drag reds, greens and browns across the canvas.
The paint slid off the surface. The thing was a mess.
Then he had a beer - the whole effort was for Anheuser-Busch, after all - and tried again.
That time Oerter clustered bubble wrap behind the canvas and poured puddles of reds, greens, yellows and blacks on the surface.
He took the discus and smashed it on the colorful pools.
"All of a sudden there was paint all over the damn place," Oerter recalled in a 2003 interview with The News-Press.
Streaks of orange, splatters of red, drips of blacks and green. It screamed "energy."
On and on the process went until Oerter smash-painted 13 canvases, one of which was later auctioned at Christie's in New York for $14,500.
"People have much too much money," he said.
Over the years, Oerter pursued his artwork more. He helped bring fellow Olympians to Southwest Florida to exhibit their work.
