Bakari Grant is an artist on the football field.
That doesn’t refer solely to the way the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ veteran slotback plays the game. The 30-year-old product of Oakland literally is an artist, creating sculptures out of various materials since he was a youngster.
“It’s my mental release,” Grant said Wednesday at Mosaic Stadium. “Everybody has a thing — or needs a thing — that can take their mind off of stress and everything else.
“For me, art is kind of a hobby-turned-job, if I can make money from it. Right now, it’s an off-season hobby, something I love doing, but I’m looking at making it hopefully into a career.”
Grant is doing fairly well in his current career.
Through 16 games this season, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound receiver has 79 catches for 969 yards and five touchdowns. He’s just 31 yards away from the first 1,000-yard season of his seven-year CFL career.
“Everybody talks about that as a receiving milestone,” Grant said. “It shows that you worked throughout the year and did something.
“But I’m just as proud of certain blocks I made or my (yards after the catch) because those things show that I’m putting in some type of work and effort to help the team win.”
Grant has a chance to reach the milestone Friday, when the Roughriders face the Montreal Alouettes at Mosaic Stadium. He got closer to the mark last Friday, when he had four catches for 53 yards in Saskatchewan’s 30-7 victory over the host Calgary Stampeders.
Grant’s showing in that game prompted a premature celebration from quarterback Kevin Glenn, who admitted Monday that he had congratulated Grant during a team meeting on reaching 1,000 yards.
“He was like, ‘No, I’ve got 31 yards left,’ ” Glenn said. “I was like, ‘Ooooh. We’re just going to speak it into existence now.’ I’m the reason he’s going to get 1,000 because I spoke it into existence (Monday) morning not knowing that he hadn’t actually reached it.”
Not surprisingly, Grant is counting on his quarterback’s help in getting to the 1,000-yard plateau.
“All football players are superstitious, so you kind of block it out when people do things like that,” Grant said of Glenn’s faux pas. “I told him, ‘We’ve still got 31 to get, so because you congratulated me, I expect you to give me that 31 yards.’ ”
Grant has put together an impressive season for the Roughriders, and not only with his receiving yards. He’s tasked regularly with blocking defensive linemen — which he does without complaint — and picking up blitzing linebackers and defensive backs.
He has done it throughout his career, which also included stops with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Calgary. Earlier this season, Glenn called Saskatchewan’s free-agent signing of Grant in February “a huge pickup.”
“I take that with a sense of pride,” Grant said. “It’s more so recognition for the things that you put into the work.
“When you’re a receiver and you catch the ball, that’s what you get paid to do. But for me, when I’m able to accomplish something like 1,000 yards and do what I love to do and help my team win with the blocks and blitz pickups, I take pride in that.”
He also takes pride in his accomplishments in the art world.
Grant started sculpting as a kid and kept going through his time at the University of California, Davis, where his minor was in art studio sculpture.
He has continued during his football career, primarily in the off-seasons. He has worked with wood, metal and concrete and has created chairs, tables, room dividers and bars along with simple pieces of art.
The piece of which he is most proud is a bass guitar made out of old copper pipes that have been cut up and reassembled. The guitar is part of a set — it also features a saxophone and a trumpet — that Grant made for his mother, Evangeline.
“She’s one of my biggest fans as far as artwork and football,” Grant said. “She tends to take most of my stuff before I have a chance to sell it.
“I’ll do stuff for art shows and before I can put it up, she’s like, ‘I want that!’ I say I made it for her, but she tends to just grab onto it and keep it, which I don’t mind.”
Grant derives a lot of satisfaction from his artwork, but he admitted with a laugh that he doesn’t have a sense of accomplishment when he finishes a piece.
Such is life for a creative person.
“The funny thing about artists — and most artists will tell you — is that you never feel like a piece is complete,” Grant said. “You always feel like you can do something else to it.
“Even looking at my stuff now, I think, ‘Aw, I could have done this or I could still fix this.’ If you can let go of the fact that you’re not going to finish, that’s a release. That’s your accomplishment, just being able to say, ‘I’m done and I can take my hands off of it.’ ”
So, does the same feeling await him when he reaches 1,000 yards receiving?
“The thing about football is you can never take your hands off it,” Grant replied with a chuckle. “You’re never done. You’ve never accomplished enough. If you get 1,100 yards, then you want 1,200.
“It’s bigger than that, too. Until I get that (Grey Cup) ring, I haven’t finished my piece yet.”
