White House Copies

No, it's not Donald Trump's plan to re-landscape the south lawn.
This White House copy really exists. It's in Dallas, Texas.

Millions of Americans would love to live in the White House. Only a couple handfuls are willing to pay the price. Along with the beautiful, white, Georgian mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. comes the most the most difficult job in the world. Just ask President Trump. Along with that job come a significant loss of privacy, incessant criticism, political intrigue, and more headaches than the "winner" of such a prize could ever have imagined. In effect, it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. The plush mansion, the massive , black limousines, Air Force One, a Marine helicopter, a wooded retreat in the Catoctin Mountains, and a sizable White House staff simply makes the job possible and a bit more pleasant.

The White House in Washington, D.C. Look but don't touch.

However, if you have between four million and ten million dollars (depending upon the number of chandeliers desired) and you have a yearning to live in the White House (or a close substitute), without all the hassles of the job doing so entails, then look up a real estate agent just across the Potomac in McLean, Virginia, there are two pretty good White House replicas (below) you can snap up for about four million. They're not perfect. They've been scaled down to human proportions and modified somewhat to the tastes of the builders and numerous occupants since, but they should suffice to impress your friends and relatives.

Neither are pure white and both porticos are poorly proportioned, but only former presidents would notice.

A while back I placed the White House as number 8 in my list of The Ten Most Beautiful Buildings in the World. If imitation is the sincerest form of praise, then I should probably move it up a few notches on my list. However, the White House is the only building on my list which anyone is likely to build their own version. And if you think the examples I've pictured above are the only attempts to emulate architect James Hoban's White House you'd be wrong. Depending upon how much authenticity and the scale you might demand, there are probably at least a dozen others all over the world.

Leinster House, Dublin, Ireland, dates from 1745-47.

Actually, Hoban's design for the White House in Washington, D.C. is, in fact, an imitation of a similar such mansion known originally as Kildare House in Dublin, Ireland. It's referred to today as Leinster House (above). And, except for the majestic porticos, and several dozen coats of white paint (which were added after the 1814 fire) the two buildings bear a remarkable resemblance.

Built in 2001, the cost was a little less than $10-million.

Perhaps the most accurate privately own version of the White House is nowhere near Washington. It's in Atlanta, Georgia, at 3687 Briarcliff Road (sometimes listed as Decatur, Georgia). From the front, the match with the real White House is perfect, though the building has been reduced in size to 3/4 scale. However, despite the curved portico in the rear, the other elevation appears to be straight out of Hollywood or perhaps Palm Springs. The house was built by Atlanta home builder Fred Milani, an American citizen born in Iran. Inside the facade the Atlanta mansion departs from any semblance of White House replication with a hodgepodge of details including a number of religious images, American political iconography, and McMansion details like coffered ceilings, wrought iron banisters and a sweeping staircase. The home also includes an Oval Office with a replica of George W. Bush’s desk. There is also a Lincoln bedroom with a picture of Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation painted on a bedroom wall.

Chinese White House, Hangzhou, China

The great imitators of the best America has to offer also have their version of the White House (above). This one was built by Huang Qiaoling, one of the richest men in China, costing around $10 million. His replica of the White House is the centerpiece of his garden so that he can “meet business associates in the "Oval Office.” Huang made a few tweaks to suit his personal tastes. For example, in one cabinet, he has substituted tomes on American history with minibar bottles of Remy Martin and a gaggle of dime-store ceramic ducks. On the mantelpiece of the Green Room stands a statue of Genghis Khan, whom ‘President Huang,’ as his staff insists on calling him, counts as his personal hero. And outside the window of the Blue Room, which Huang uses as his office, is a one-third-size Mount Rushmore with employees’ quarters tucked in the back. Those Chinese think of everything, don't they?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Little White House" in Warm Springs,
Georgia--barely a cottage as compared to its D.C. counterpart.

In Warm Springs, Georgia stands The Little White House. It was built in 1932 as the personal retreat of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States. Insofar as it being a replica of the Big White House, it's probably the worst copy ever copied. Not only is in much smaller, but bears only a passing resemblance to Roosevelt's presidential residence. Roosevelt kept the house after he became President, using it as a presidential retreat. Of all the White House replicas, this one has the closest connection to a president than any other. Roosevelt died there on April 12, 1945, three months into his fourth term. He was having his portrait painted at the time.

Lego White House, Legoland, Carlsbad, California

Though not private residences, the classical architectural lines of Hoban's Executive Mansion have also found there way into at least two tourist destination. The first is Legoland located in Carlsbad, California (above) where the White House is replicated totally in plastic Lego "bricks." In Corona California, John and Jan Zweifel have what is considered to be one of the world’s greatest miniature houses, a recreation of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue which has taken over 38 years in building (below). It is updated with each administration. Built at a one-foot-to-one-inch scale, the touring model replica allows millions a glimpse into the off-limits life of each president.

John and Jan Zweifel's miniature masterpiece is not a dollhouse.  

And finally, a White House replication so monstrously silly I'm somewhat reluctant to include it among all these others. Tucked away (fortunately) in the Wisconsin Dells near Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park, is what's called Top Secret. Basically it's an upside-down White House with the exterior architectural detail relatively accurate. Admission is $12. Kids love it, adults usually come away wondering why they wasted their time and money. It's actually a glorified haunted house with little or no tour guide references to the real White House. Trip Advisor review seldom give it more than one "star."

I'll hold off on the political wisecracks.

 

Stephen S. Sawyer

The article is thirteen years old. The Sawyer's Jesus is as timely
as it is timeless (insofar as the future is concerned, that is).

Recently, as I was reviewing the work of several illustrators, in preparing for other articles, I began to notice that I could pretty much tell the decade in which a given work was created just by studying the painting style and clothing worn by the figures depicted. Today, as I was looking at the work of Kentucky artist, Stephen Sawyer, I came face to face with the realization that the same applied to religious images of Jesus Christ. I won't go into a lot of detail, but suffice to say our mental images of Jesus, based as they are upon artists' renderings, some hundreds of years old, are quite outdated. That's where Sawyer comes in. He and two or three other contemporary artists have taken it upon themselves to put before us a "new" Jesus. Prepare to be startled.

 

A born again artist with a vivid, reborn image of Jesus.



Stephen Sawyer is a devout Christian from Versailles, Kentucky. He has always painted religious themes, including, of course, Jesus. However he did those "traditional" arts, showing the Nazarene in those iconic images of sheep herder, water walker, and other biblical scenes. Then he recognized the obvious fact most Christians have not realized until now: those images were allegories. It made sense five-hundred years ago to talk about Jesus the "sheep herder." But what about today? Millennials would ask, "What the hell do I care if Jesus shepherded sheep?"

 

Art for God.

That is why Sawyer prefers to make a "strong and powerful" Jesus following the current models: a pumped-up, but at the same time, gentle Son of God, even in traditional representations. Sawyer's Jesus is a guy who definitely suffers with his siblings, instead of simply sitting up in a cloud somewhere judging others. Conservatives freaked out. Yet, at the same time, others applauded him. In the words of the artist himself, in justifying this "modern" revisiting of Jesus: "Jesus could hardly have achieved so many deeds or garnered such respect if he were a weakling." Sawyer concludes: "He was a carpenter of the working class. Surely his body was strong and muscular, because that was His most important working tool."

 

Sawyer's "image makeover" of Jesus Christ

Joy to the World, 2000,
Stephen Sawyer

After spending several years as a professional portrait artist, Stephen Sawyer decided to turn his skills towards sharing his faith in Christ. In 1995, Stephen created ART for GOD, an or-ganization dedicated to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ through stunning visual representations. His commitment is to accurately reflect the life and teach-ings of Jesus in the 21st-century. Sawyer strives to depict the holiness, kindness, humility, unselfish love, strength, and beauty, of Jesus Christ and His eternal rela-tionship with us in this present moment. People need to remember Jesus laughing and Jesus smiling (left). For a society that is used to experiencing most of life through television, radio, the Internet, and movies, Sawyer's art serves as a visual sermon offering viewers an opportunity to encounter Christ and his message in a different medium. Whether depicting Je-sus himself, or his teaching, as in The Good Samaritan (below), Art for God offers a unique way to spread the Gospel message.

The Good Samaritan, Stephen Sawyer...universal health care. 

 

Barely There, Stephen Sawyer.
Jesus would find this amusing.
 

 

Rhythm and Repetition

Farm Equipment,  Jawshoewhah. Photographic rhythm,
quite complex, but far from chaotic.

Open Windows,
Friiskiwi

The words "rhythm" and "repetition" are most often associated with music and poetry, but they also occupy an important place in painting, drawing, and photography. Painters, for some reason, only rarely use either one while they're often part of a photographer's stock and trade. For a painter to render the same shape again and again on the same canvas is tedious and boring. Painters hate tedious and boring. It's so damned tedious and boring. For photographers, a little compositional positioning of the camera, some momentary thought as to cropping, then click, their work is done, at least until they edit their digital image on a computer. That's a far cry from what a painter has to go through in utilizing rhythm or repetition in a painting. Even if working from a photo, it's only the first, preliminary step.

 

Lorraine Shemesh paintings of shoes--repetition and total chaos--except for the top image which displays a crude, rhythmic composition.

Rhythm and repetition are not the same thing, of course. All rhythm involves repetition but not all repetition has rhythm. Repetition is, more often than not, at least fairly chaotic and random. Rhythm is neither. It is, for the most part, manmade, and except for certain types of jazz, it's never random or chaotic. In the case of painting, that's never the case. By definition, rhythm in painting demands some degree of disciplined as seen in the contrast between Lorraine Shemesh's upper painting and the two lower ones.

 

Near perfect rhythm. Notice both are photos. No painter in their right mind
would attempt to render such images...or at least they wouldn't be in his right mind by the time they finished.

One of the few notable painters patient enough to do rhythm, and do it well, was Andy Warhol. We're all familiar with his multi-colored, multi-image portraits silkscreened onto canvas, as well as his various consumer products. Most iconic by far were his Campbell's Soup Cans (below). The Converse sneaker work is less well-known, yet both are the epitome of rhythmic painting. Strangely, though the soup cans plainly read "Beef Noodle" the painting is title Tomato 3. Moreover, in adapting the silkscreen to his painting needs, he mostly avoided the risk of rhythmic insanity.

 

Why is it I have this sudden craving for soup at the moment?

Copyright, Jim Lane

Shafts of Color, Jim Lane

In preparing for this discourse, I was surprised to realize just how many of my own paint-ings involve repetition. Yet on-ly one, Shafts of Color (right) was even slightly rhythmic. And in discussing the usual cha-os of painted repetition my own work stands as a prime example. Most are still-lifes but only the one at right was "arranged" as is common with most painters. Mine have more the look of having been dumped. I have long referred to them as non-traditional still-lifes in that each is painted larger than life and feature nothing in the way of a background and only a slight indication, with reference to object size toward the bottom of the paintings, as to any type of foreground. They are all content, all highly detailed, yet they convey any number of subtle themes or messages.

 

Copyright, Jim Lane

You can't get much more chaotic or random as to repetition than a
pack of dogs (second image)...unless it's a pack of cats.

Dried Fish, Stash Cross. I have no idea if this
is a painting or a photo. It "smells" a little
like a photo, though.

Copyright, Jim Lane

So Much to Chew, So Little Time
to Chew It, 2001, Jim Lane

 

Hy Hintermeister

A rare case when father and son broke ranks. During WW II Henry (the son) Hintermeister produced a series of paintings celebrating American history and patriotism. This supposedly "state of the art" agriculturally themed work was probably from the 1940s.

I've written a few times before as to how easy it is to get artists mixed up when they have similar names. Sometimes such artists lived many years apart...or many decades apart...while others are contemporaries. Art historians and other experts have been known to struggle mightily in differentiating the art of whole families sometimes spread over two or three generations, especially if there are few differences in their work. Artists who happen to be fathers and sons with the same given names are the worst offenders, forcing art experts to refer them as "the elder" or "the younger." But what's an art historian to do if one of these father-son duos working together deliberately choose to work as if they were one?

 

Art by Henry Hintermeister intended to raise wartime morale.

John Henry Hintermeister was born in Switzerland and lived from 1869 to 1972 (yes, over a hundred years). His son, Henry, was born in 1897. However, he died the same year as his father, in 1972, further adding to the confusion. Together, they produced illustrations that were used for prints, calendars, ads, posters, magazine covers, and even jigsaw puzzles (below). To make matters worse, for the most part, they worked under a single pseudonym signature, Hy Hintermeister. As a result, art experts have all but given up any attempt to decided who painted what--their technique, brushwork, and style are totally identical. One more thing, as I discovered in researching this piece, there are no self-portraits, not even a single photo of either man to be found on the Internet.

 

It's interesting to note the manner in which the publisher
cropped the artwork to make it fit the die-cut format of his puzzle.

Although Hy Hintermeister painted dozens of hunting and fishing scenes similar to that of the jigsaw puzzle, as well as high-calorically sweet school children as they grew up during the fifty years from the 1890s through the 1940s (the "golden age of illustration") leaving behind one-thousand painted works of art, they are best remembered for "Granny." The "little old lady" either conformed to an existing geriatric stereotype, or had a major role in forming it. Despite her frail, grandmotherly appearance, this "granny" would have been one "cool chick"--strong, loving, funny, adventurous, and mostly unafraid to try anything at least once.

 

Granny At the Game, Hy Hintermeister. Granny loved kids,
loved fun, loved baseball, liked to knit, and wasn't afraid to
break a few rules (and behavioral stereotypes) to prove it.

Granny may have grown old, but she never grew up. She was still a child at heart, and perhaps something of a tomboy from her younger days as well. Granny had her counterpart, though the two never met. He was something of a bumbling, crotchety old cuss, perhaps deliberately cast as the diametric opposite of Granny (below). She was funny, in her strength and daring. He was simply sad, a crusty old sea captain, and often the butt of the Hintermeister sense of humor, though mostly quite humorless himself.

 

I could find no title for this, but if you want to
have some fun, simply make up your own.

This pair of painters, became notorious during this country's Golden Years (1950s, mainly) illustrating the day-to-day lives of Americans with a good life. Many bucolic scenes, lots of city life, happy people pursuing happiness. When you look into the faces of the kids, mostly boys, if you haven't already, you soon think of Norman Rockwell. Mr. Saturday Evening Post was no doubt inspiration to these two artists, since they were contemporaries, yet despite some similarities, Hy Hintermeister (neither of them) were of the same rank as Rockwell. The Hintermeisters painted the cute. Rockwell's work had an edge of cool reality without sacrificing a loving warmth, and very seldom becoming sugary sweet.

 

Granny could be both fun and funny at the same time.

Math Problems (top)
Water Boy and Dog (middle)
A Kiss for Ice Cream (bottom)
 

 

Walfrido Garcia

From Dusk to Dawn Waikiki, Walfrido Garcia

Whenever we travel to another country I like to support a favorite local artist by purchasing one or two small, hand-painted, originals. Of course, when dealing with local artists painting for the tourist trade, the word "originals" becomes a relative term. Such artists often had a repertoire of dozens of images they paint again and again with only slight variations. As any painter will tell you, other artists seldom buy art. Either they have little or no room to hang it (my situation) or they consider that they could do just as well themselves. I seldom buy anything larger than about 8 x 10 inches then stretch the canvas myself and hang them in groups of two or three. I have work from Paris, Venice, Greece, and San Salvador. In 2019, my wife and I plan to revisit Hawai'i to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary (we were first there for our 25th). I've always liked Hawaiian art and today I think I've found the painter I'd like to support.

 

Walfrido Garcia continues to teach painting classes.
(I dislike seeing a class where everyone is painting the same scene.)

His name is Walfrido Garcia. He's a relatively young, but mature, artist, born in 1966, making him fifty-three by the time we get back to the islands. Walfrido is the son of the renowned Filipino painter, Edgardo F. Garcia, and thus a second generation artist. Watching his father teach art and paint made the boy eager to follow in his footsteps. He drew everything from airplanes to comic strip characters to develop his hand-eye coordination. By the age of fourteen, his father took him under his wing and taught him all of the Old Masters secrets. The family had moved to California in 1973 where Walfrido’s love for painting came hand in hand with his love for surfing. By the time he was seventeen, Walfrido was teaching his own art classes, hanging his art in Carmel galleries, and taking art classes full time at Ohlone Jr. College in Fremont, California.

 

An untitled beach scene by Walfrido Garcia, which
appears to be an early work, probably from the 1990s.

Hawaiian Islands, Walfrido Garcia

In 1987, while on vacation in Hawaii, Garcia found repre-sentation by the Livingston art gallery on Oahu. From there his work attracted the atten-tion of local as well as inter-national art buyers. Walfrido continued to paint, teach and study art at San Jose State University. His paintings even-tually caught the eye of Bill Wyland, founder of Wyland Galleries Hawaii. At the age of twenty-three, Garcia became the youngest artist to display his art in the major gallery chain. Since then Walfrido’s art has graced the walls of art galleries and collectors' homes across the United States and abroad.


Stoney Corner, Walfrido Garcia

Garcia's style might best be described as “Romantic Luminism” in which the subjects he portrays goes beyond the photographic to achieve a sense of timeless perfection with nature. Each painting starts out as a loose impressionistic idea. As the layers of paint are added the details come out. By the time the highlights are done the painting glows with light reminiscent of the Old Masters. Up close the rhythm of his brush strokes are plainly visible. But in stepping back, they blend into a harmonious image of light, color, and texture. Garcia uses photographs, videos, and also paints on location, which gives him endless subject matter, flooding his imagination, unlocking the key to his style. Garcia's most frequent subjects include romantic moonlight, brilliant sunsets, the sea caves of Kauai, and the awe-inspiring glow of his signature “Lavascapes,“ allowing each canvas to live with the brilliant light of nature coming from within.

Garcia's "cave" paintings are among my personal favorites.

Make no mistake about it, Walfrido Garcia paints for Hawaii's tourist crowd; but then, so does virtually every other contemporary artist in the Aloha art market. And, as is typical of Hawaiian art, his work is rife was color, quite possibly far more color than mainland eyes are accustomed to. On this side of the Pacific, we would stereotype such brilliant sunsets as "cheap" and amateurish. Let me assure you, Garcia's work is neither. Medium-size originals start at around $2,000 (one reason I only buy smaller ones).

Garcia occasionally paints non-island scenes, though I wonder where he found that much water in Las Vegas...probably the Bellagio Fountains.

Garcia is best known for his ground-breaking seascape paintings. However, in addition to his traditional seascapes, his trailblazing series includes his Koa wood collection, fire and fantasy, Disney collaborations, and Princess Cruise Line prints. Besides being a full-time painter, Garcia's credits include that of TV producer of his own art show, Art Made Easy, which has been awarded “Best Art Show” in the islands over the local channels. Walfrido’s greatest sense of accomplishment is being a father, a husband, and bringing people's spirit closer to the light within his art. With over thirty-four years of painting experience behind him, Walfrido Garcia is considered to be one of the most distinguished Hawaiian artists today.



I'm not particularly fond of a title printed on a painting.

Part of the Disney collaboration.

 

Giovanni Battista Caracciolo

Half-length Figure of a Young Man (possibly a
Bacchus), Giovanni Caracciolo.

As art students pursue the technical and philosophical details of their learning, on rare occasions there usually occurs a moment when they realize some profound secret, or truth about themselves or their art. Today we might call it a "light bulb moment." I suppose this might occur in any area of study as well. I had an instructor in my first college-level class in composition (writing) who referred to my sudden insight into some aspect of my writing (I forget the details) as an "epiphany." I guess in the back of my mind I'd heard the word before in conjunction with its more common religious meaning, but I confess, I needed yet another epiphany to understand its meaning.

 

Way to Calvary, Giovanni Caracciolo

Saint John the Baptist,
Giovanni Caracciolo

The late 16th-century Italian painter Giovanni Battista Caracciolo had an epiphany (or more likely, a whole series of them). Near the end of September or in early October of 1606, Caracciolo was in Naples where he met another talented painter, who was, as it so happened, a fugitive from justice. (He was fleeing Rome after having killed a man in a brawl.) That artist was the brilliant Michel-angelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Immediately Caracciolo became one of Caravaggio's stu-dents, and by all accounts, his best student. Caracciolo must have also been something of a "quick study" in that his mentor's stay in the city lasted only about eight months, though he made another brief visit to Naples around 1609/1610. Yet Caravaggio's impact on his pupil's artistic life there was nothing less than profound.

 

Sick Bacchus, 1593-94,
Caravaggio (self-portrait)

Although Caracciolo's painting Half-length Figure of a Young Man (top) is undated, it's not hard to see the similarities to Car-avaggio's Sick Bacchus (above) from 1597, with which Caracciolo seems to have been familiar. The pose, the lighting, even the sparkling look of mischief can be seen as an emulation of Caravaggio. It is unfortunately difficult to tell whether Carac-ciolo's canvas was originally part of a figure of Saint John the Baptist, though this seems improbable due to the lack of the characteristic sheepskin clothing across his loins. However, the youth's air of coarseness and his enticing smile seem far removed from a religious representation. These qualities seem to suggest instead a figure of Bacchus. The painting's inspir-ation could still derive from the Saint John the Baptist since this was one of Cara-vaggio's last works painted in Naples, and among his best-known compositions. Car-acciolo has retained the idea of the figure resting on an elbow and the felicitous placing of one hand gently across the other forearm.

Presumed portrait of
Giovanni Caracciolo, 1773

Archival documents state Caracciolo was born in Naples and baptized in December, 1578. The family lived in the parish of San Giovanni Maggiore. At the age of twenty, Caracciolo married Beatrice de Mario. They had ten children, eight of whom survived to adulthood. Caracciolo's initial training was said to be with Francesco Imparato and Fabrizio Santafede, but the first real impulse in his art came from Caravaggio's sudden presence in Naples in late 1606. Caracciolo, was five years younger than Caravaggio, but was among the first to adopt the startling new style with its somber palette, dramatic tenebrism, and sculptural fig-ures in a shallow picture plane. His figures were defined by light rather than by perspective. Caracciolo is considered to have been the sole founder of the Neapol-itan school of Caravaggism.

Baptism of Christ, 1610, Giovanni Caracciolo.

Caracciolo's Caravaggesque phase was fundamental to his entire career. His first contact with Caravaggio must have been around the time of the Radolovich commission, dated October 6, 1606. Caracciolo's paintings can rightly be divided into two groups--pre-Caravaggio and post-Caravaggio. The artist's Way to Calvary is undated but appears to be pre-Caravaggio. The same is likely the case with the artist's St. John the Baptist (seen earlier). Contrast it with the 1610-20 St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness (below) and his Baptism of Christ (above) both documented as from after 1610 are obviously from the latter period.

The Young Saint John in the Wilderness,
1610-20, Giovanni Battista Caracciolo.

Even a cursory glance at most of Caracciolo's figures, whether religious or mythological, would suggest homoerotic overtones, though a married man having father ten children would hardly be suspected as being gay. As for Caravaggio, that's a different story. In any case, it would seem that Caracciolo's "following" of his artistic idol included a preference for painting male nudes (or semi-nudes) with little regard as to religious, mythological, or homosexual contexts (below). Caracciolo died in Naples, on Christmas Eve, 1635, just a few days after signing his last will and testament.

Sleeping Cupid, Giovanni Battista Caracciolo
 

The Sacrifice of Abraham
after 1610, Giovanni Caracciolo

 

August Paintings.

There was a time when August was water-cooled.
Now we rely on Freon.

Over the past few months, as I've presented on the first day of each month what I call calendar art minus all those bothersome numbers on each double-page spread, I've relied primarily on holidays, landscapes, and weather related paintings for the bulk of some really outstanding art by a number of artists both living and dead. Today, though, I'm up against a month that has no legal holidays. Thus I'm treating every day of August as a holiday, even though, as I pointed out last month, considerably more people take their "holidays" (as the Europeans call vacations) in the month of July. In thinking about it, I'm wondering if that's because August is just to damned HOT to venture out into the sunny great outdoors when we now have air-conditioners to solve that problem. It used to be that our forefathers and foremothers packed up the kids and headed for the cooling breezes of the mountains or the northern seashores of Maine and Canada. Now, thanks to air-conditioning, they head for Florida and Mr. Disney's cooling breezes.



 Fountain Frolic, John Jaster

Quite apart from air-conditioning, August has three iconic elements which make it bearable. Water (and lots of it), ice cream (best consumed rapidly), and baseball (best enjoyed leisurely from the shady side of the stadium. We've already exposed water for what it is...uhh...wet and refreshing. Ice cream is wet and refreshing too, but also sweet and creamy which makes it far better than plain water, even in vastly smaller quantities. Artist Jim Daly (below) reminds us that this proverbial summer treat has been around for quite some time, long before the Good Humor man or Mr. Softee hit the streets.

Ice Cream Peddler, Jim Daly

And of course, what would August be without Norman Rockwell reminding us that ice cream may also have a rather messy downside. It would appear that Rockwell's teen paramour has a problem on his hands. However, whether he realizes it or not, he also holds the solution in his hands--eat the damned stuff, and the sooner the better.

Melting, Norman Rockwell.

I think it would be safe to say that Norman Rockwell adored the summer months. One of his earliest Saturday Evening Post covers, dates all the way back to 1921 when beating the head by hitting the water did not involve lifeguards, chlorine, snack bars, or necessarily (for boys at least) proper swimming attire. It did, from time to time though, involve a daring willingness to ignore signs, not to mention a certain degree of embarrassment.

No Swimming, 1921, Norman Rockwell.
At the time, all Post covers were printed
using only red and black inks.

Inasmuch as Rockwell seems to have covered both the classic August topics of ice cream and skinny dippin', let me submit coverage of the other national summer pastime, seen below in a painting I did some thirty-six years ago, which I titled The Outfielders (below). I'd try submitting it to the Post but they're focus is now a health and medicine; and they no longer use art work on their covers. (Also, I sold it many years ago.)

Copyright, Jim Lane

The Outfielders, 1979, Jim Lane

August also reminds us that there's much more to baseball than outfield bleachers and grown men playing with a ball and a lethal club made of ash, oak, or maple. In case no one has noticed, kids like baseball too, starting with something called T-ball, where the outfielders have been known to sit down and play in the dirt, or perhaps (as our son did one time), gather dandelions. From there I think it's called "pigeon league," then little league, and finally "pony" league for those in their early teens. I titled my tribute to the juvenile sport of baseball, Dog's Eye View (below). I assumed dogs like baseball too.

Copyright, Jim Lane

Dog's Eye View, Jim Lane

Speaking of dogs, we must not forget that
they have their own August holidays--the
"Dog Days of Summer." This one seems
to prefer tennis to baseball.