The painting of the baseball legend Babe Ruth reflects the timeless nature of baseball and the nostalgic image of another era. I painted Babe immersed within the background to reinforce these concepts- as if he frozen and immortalized. His expression is one of awe, perhaps inviting the viewer into his mindset of not quite believing another home run has left his bat. The intense color scheme was meant to contrast the black-and-white record of the day and bring a dreamy feel to the work.

Babe Ruth was the first sports icon to gain celebrity status with a lifestyle of playing hard in life and in baseball. He was a natural athlete who did what came naturally to him without today’s athlete regimen of training, diet and workouts. He set a benchmark of 715 home runs that was the most hollowed in all sports until broken by Henry Aaron in 1974 and later by Barry Bonds.

A brief listing of his top accomplishments would include the following:

» Babe Ruth led the American League in home runs 12 times (1918-1921, 1923, 1924, 1926-1931.)

» From 1915-17, Ruth won 65 games, the most by any left-handed pitcher in the majors during that time.

» Ruth's career .690 slugging percentage is the highest total in the history of Major League Baseball.

» Babe Ruth is the only player ever to hit three home runs in a World Series game on two separate occasions-Game 4 of the 1926 Series and Game 4 of the 1928 Series.