Photoshop skills, and Bernie and his mittens

Joe Biden is in the White House. Donald Trump is at Mar-a-Lago. But Bernie Sanders has owned the spotlight in the last 10 days.

Bernie and his mittens.

In case you’ve been stuck in a snowbank somewhere and missed it, a random Bernie photo from the presidential inauguration has gone viral. The Vermont senator and former candidate for president, sat cross-legged in a folding chair with his mask, parka and crocheted mittens. During the time since it hit social media, the photo has become the muse for Photoshop artists across the nation.

Bernie’s photo has been added to promotional photos for movies such as “Forrest Gump,” “Clerks,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Wayne’s World”, and television shows such as “Friends,” “Golden Girls” and “The Sopranos.” There are photos of Bernie carried across the sky by balloons and off the football field by Alabama players during the Crimson Tide’s national championship celebration. Bernie has been in his folding chair on the moon and in the corner of the ring during a Muhammed Ali fight.

Bernie and his mittens are now next to the greats of all time, meme inspirations such as Crying Jordan and the gymnast McKayla Maroney, who was obviously not impressed. Remember her?

I may not have gone viral like Bernie, but my mug has been central to so many Photoshop projects courtesy of my good friend and former Valley Life editor Casey Ressler. This Photoshop artwork was Frontiersman tradition for years. Somewhere on Ressler’s laptop lives a folder stocked full of cropped images of my melon. Judging by his portfolio, there are varying sizes of my coconut with time measured by the amount of gray in my goatee. Thanks to Ressler my head has been attached to everyone from Fabio, to George Bush, to the Pope. Years ago when Ressler and I shared our corner in the newsroom, I’d walk in to see his work proudly displayed on the wall. It was like the mother who hangs her first grader’s art project on the refrigerator. I can’t doubt his creativity. One day I’d be the president addressing the nation, the next I’d have my mug attached to the cover of a harlequin romance novel.

It’s actually evolved into an annual tradition. Each year on my birthday Ressler posts one of his works on my Facebook page. The days leading up to my birthday I’m both intrigued and scared, mostly scared. Thankfully it’s usually something that won’t send me into therapy. For my last birthday, Ressler used the promotion photo for ESPN’s “The Last Dance,” the epic documentary about the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls. He has my head on the bodies of Steve Kerr, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, and his own on head coach Phil Jackson. And of course, you can’t mess with Jordan.

Ressler has attached my skull to so many Chicago Cubs over the years and a few Chicago Blackhawks players along the way. Now I’m wondering what he is planning for 2021.

This Photoshop work is a skill. Maybe there is an art house out there somewhere willing to display Ressler’s work. Regardless the Bernie memes must continue. So far it’s not getting old. If nothing else it’s providing us a bit of a break or distraction from the gong show that is American politics.

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at editor@frontiersman.com.