Lora Feely remembers when James Whitaker started her introductory art class at Bishop Gorman.
It wasn’t just that Whitaker was quiet and off to the corner. Feely, the school’s art teacher, noticed the potential Whitaker had after some early drawings.
It was just a matter of whether Whitaker would be interested in investing the time to develop his art skills.
He did, while also developing the baseball skills that make Whitaker one of the state’s top pitchers.
Whitaker, a senior, is the ace of Bishop Gorman’s pitching staff and is committed to play college baseball at Northwestern. While shining on the baseball diamond, Whitaker has also excelled as an artist.
“He is a student of few words, has an intensity about him and a focus that I think carries well into his pitching world as well,” Feely said. “It didn’t matter what type of assignment we were completing; he always took it a little bit further because he was interested in the process and what he was able to create with the prompts.”
The Class 5A Southern Region playoffs begin Monday. Gorman (18-12) won the 5A Desert League regular-season title and faces Centennial at 4 p.m. Monday in an opening-round game.
Whitaker has a 4.87 ERA in 10 starts for Gorman with 46 innings pitched, 45 strikeouts and a 3-4 record. As a sophomore, Whitaker earned the win on the mound in the 2023 5A state title game to give the Gaels their ninth state title.
Gorman has battled some of that nation’s top teams in its nonconference schedule. Whitaker was sensational in the Gaels’ 1-0 win at St. John Bosco (California) in March. He went the distance, pitching a shutout with nine strikeouts.
Whitaker also delivered against a pair of league opponents in April to help the Gaels clinch the No. 1 seed. He hurled a shutout with seven strikeouts in a 10-0 five-inning win over Las Vegas High and allowed two runs and struck out nine in a 3-2 win against Desert Oasis.
“He’s definitely advanced. His (older) brother (Tyler, a Houston Astros prospect) plays. He’s got a really good understanding of the game, high IQ player, really smart in the classroom,” Gorman pitching coach Chase Maddux said. “He retains information quickly, and he’s able to apply what he learns pitch to pitch and apply it very quickly.”
For Whitaker, his art has become an escape and hobby that’s complemented his pitching.
“On the baseball field, I’m a perfectionist, and I feel like that plays right into my artwork,” Whitaker said. “It really does push me to make the best pieces possible. As a pitcher specifically, it is a lot about the details when you’re on the mound, the same with artwork, so there is a correlation there.”
‘A beautiful feeling’
Whitaker doesn’t come from an artistic family. None of his family members draw or do any kind of art. Whitaker was then placed in the introductory art class when he got to Gorman.
That’s when Feely felt Whitaker could excel as an artist. She said that the focus he puts into each drawing while tackling any challenges has helped him thrive.
“He’s cranking out these drawings that are large formats with an intense amount of detail,” Feely said. “He really does get lost in trying to achieve this realism with his work. You have to have a certain amount of focus to do that. He’s doing pores on portraits. It’s not these perfectly smooth skin textures.
“He’s showing the imperfections and those details that give character to the subjects in his drawings and paintings.”
Whitaker said he enjoys doing portraits and realistic art, with graphite and charcoal being his main mediums of choice.
It takes “a lot of focus and tons of time,” Whitaker said. “At the same time, you can’t stress over every single detail. You have to work from the bigger picture and then start to refine as you go, because if you start nitpicking at the beginning, you’re going to drive yourself crazy.”
He said his favorite piece is his “Joker” drawing. It was his first big piece when he worked with charcoal, which Whitaker said is a difficult material to use. He said he loves that the drawing shows all the textures in the subject.
Art, “it’s just so different from baseball or any other hobby,” Whitaker said. “Art’s different from any other kind of hobby because you get to create yourself and you’re completely in control of everything you’re doing. … It’s a beautiful feeling.”
‘Glad I stuck with it’
The biggest challenge for Whitaker, Feely said, to grow as an artist was to get out of his comfort zone of working with portraits and using graphite and charcoal.
This year, Feely said she’s seen a lot more experimentation from Whitaker and more of a “confidence” that allows him to take more risks. He’s worked with paintings and oil paints. One of his more recent pieces was a landscape in a style similar to Bob Ross.
“This year, he’s really open to trying new processes,” Feely said. “You can find a life of enjoyment just with graphite and charcoal. But I think that curiosity that probably brought him to art, in the beginning, will stay more impactful if he allows himself to kind of let his curiosity guide him outside of what he’s used to. That’s what he’s been more confident doing.”
Feely, a former soccer player at UNLV, can relate to Whitaker about the pressures of being an athlete. Feely said she can remember only one or two of his pieces being related to baseball.
“He’s really wanted to keep them two separate entities in his life,” Feely said. “He needs that break, that mental break from baseball, not because he doesn’t love it and doesn’t want to spend every waking moment playing baseball, but he needs to have a mental break.”
Whitaker is taking two art classes this year. Feely said he often gets straight to work when he walks into class.
“I barely do any work outside of school. It’s pretty much all in class,” he said. “When I’m in school and then I get that class period, it’s like a perfect break for me. I’m always at work, because I have two classes of art a day, so it’ll be three hours a day where I can lock in and do all my artwork.”
Whitaker said he isn’t sure what’s in store with art academically in college, but he will continue to keep art as a hobby.
“I got pretty good. I’m glad I stuck with it. I saw a lot of growth,” Whitaker said. “(Feely), absolutely love her, very knowledgeable and has been my mentor these past few years. … She’s always giving me ideas of something different I can do. She kind of pushes me out of my comfort zone and I start picking up on techniques that I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t get out of my comfort zone, and that makes me a better artist.”
Eyes on another title
Whitaker is still fairly soft-spoken and doesn’t talk too much about his art. That’s why those on the Gorman baseball team are surprised when they find out about his art skills.
“I saw it on Twitter randomly one day, and I was pretty impressed,” Maddux said. “I kind of didn’t really expect that out of him. But it’s pretty incredible what he’s able to do with a piece of paper. … I know he’s very attention-to-detail with everything he does. It’s not a surprise that he’s able to do that. How in-depth those drawings are, it’s pretty impressive.”
Things have changed drastically since Whitaker took the mound in the 2023 state title game at UNR. Gorman went through a coaching change midseason last year and missed the playoffs after having to forfeit several games for using an ineligible player.
Former College of Southern Nevada assistant Matt Stoner took over during the summer. Maddux said Whitaker took on a leadership role as one of the few holdovers from the 2023 team.
“He takes young guys under his wing, treats everybody with respect,” Maddux said. “That’s one of the big things that he does really well, he doesn’t let his status get to his head. He treats everybody the same and is a really good teammate.”
Whitaker hopes the final picture of his Gorman baseball career includes another state title.
“There’s been some ups and downs, and this year we’re coming off a pretty rough year last year. But it’s a pretty fresh team,” Whitaker said. “We have a lot of young guys, and me and a few other guys has kind of taken the role of trying to be leaders and kind of get everyone on the same boat, pull on the same side of the rope, and kind of get this ball rolling and (try to) make it to state and hopefully win it all.”
Contact Alex Wright at [email protected]. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
