Strange Things Done in the Midnight Sun

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold...

If you slice off the top portion of the photograph, it looks as if we could be on the marge of Lake LaBarge, the very spot where we cremated Sam McGee. So convincing is the artwork upon the Seafood and Rib Shack at Roebuck, South Carolina, that we are fairly drawn to confirm by touch that it's only paint upon a commonplace structure.

Not only is the painting very good, but it is made all the more riveting by the colorlessness and sheer desolation of the area surrounding the building. On this bright sunny day, the gradations of cold blue color present as much mood as illustration. The artist's brush seems to have been dipped in Freon.

Beyond the contrast of the building against the land is the paradox of the artwork against itself. The bottom portion reminds one of a wide screen Technicolor film while the top owes everything to a Loony Tunes cartoon. Often such impressive murals are interrupted by some discordant element such as a window air conditioner. In this case the intruder is the white aluminum gutter downspout. Then upstairs we have a cow cooking beef over a fire and a fish fishing for fish. The longer you confront this building, the more bizarre it becomes.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold