Neighbors: Storied Career

Jim Griffith, sporting a yellow rain slicker, wears a look of concern. As he steers his ship through a monstrous storm, the sailor stares into the horizon through the driving rain.

George Heitler, on the other hand, stands confident. He has one hand out in front of him and the other clutching a silver pistol. The sheriff, wearing a red bandana and silver badge, is ready for action.

In reality, Griffith, although depicted as a sailor, is a retired medical doctor who volunteers for the Sarasota Senior Friendship Centers. And most people wouldn’t associate retired lawyer George Heitler with being a sheriff.

“I try to get them doing things they don’t really do,” says Scott Pike, the resident artist at Plymouth Harbor.
Pike has painted about nine portraits of Plymouth Harbor residents who have caught his eye. Whether it’s a strong face or a sparkle in their eyes, the painting is inspired by one of their striking features.

“Scott said, ‘I’d like to paint your picture — you have a very unusual face,’” says Heitler. Heitler’s was the first resident portrait Pike painted. Dressed as a cowboy, complete with a real gun, Heitler went to Scott’s apartment, where he posed for photos.

“I thought it was terrific, and my kids all loved it,” Heitler said.

Pike sprayed Griffith’s hair and face with water before doing a sketch and painting from the sketch and photos. Pike usually paints one hour a day, and it takes him about three weeks to complete the resident portrait paintings.

“The style and realism of his characters is striking,” says Griffith.

Plymouth Harbor General Manager Gordon Okawa thinks the paintings unintentionally break stereotypes of aging in America.

“They aren’t just portraits of an older person,” says Okawa. “They take emphasis off of age and capture their character or essence.”

Resident portraits are only about one-fifth of the artwork Pike will be displaying in his upcoming art show, “Scott Pike and Friends,” which will open Dec. 6 at Plymouth Harbor.

Pike does all different types of paintings and made his living drawing comics, storyboards for commercials and illustrations. Even though he has been retired since 1983, he still paints “doggone near every day,” he says.

Paintings of pets, family members, scenery, comic book characters and pinups in frames of different sizes and colors deck his walls. In fact, not a square foot of space is left for more paintings at Scott and Margi Pike’s apartment at Plymouth Harbor. Pike’s work has even flooded into the hallways where a couple of Western-inspired pieces and one of Stratton Mountain, Vt., hang.

“At one point, the only spot that was free was above the TV,” says Pike.

He has recently filled that spot with a painting he made specifically for the space, but his wife doesn’t like it — the teal frame is the wrong color for the bluish/gray beachscape, she says.

Pike concedes that his wife knows best. He is red-green colorblind, and his wife is the one he leans on for color support. They’ve been married since 1948.

After serving in the Marine Corps in World War II, Pike took an aptitude test that gave him the decision between becoming an engineer or an artist. After that, he studied art at Parson’s School of Design and for six months at Syracuse University. He then studied fine arts at Ringling College of Art and Design in 1948 while his wife taught school.

The pair then moved to New York City.

“I thought New York would be waiting with open arms for me, and it turned out it wasn’t — I couldn’t get a job,” says Pike.

Pike then met with Al Hartley, known for his work with Archie Comics, and Pike did penciling for him for two weeks but quit because their personalities clashed. The work was for Timely Comics, which would eventually evolve into Marvel Comics — famous for producing Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Hulk and Captain America. Stan Lee, who co-created most of those comic book characters, was the editor.

“I really loved doing comic books,” Pike says. He even created his own comic book, “Dolphin,” about a woman who could breathe under water.

He drew comic books until 1956, when he says most comic books went out of business. Pike says some of the comic books of the ’50s were “really lousy.”

“There were war comics with corpses floating down rivers and shots of faces being blown apart,” he says.

In 1954, the Senate started holding hearings about the content and imagery of comic books. The Comics Code Authority that arose from the hearings forced Pike to extend the skirt length and reduce the breast size of the jungle girl comic book he was working on at the time.

Pike then transitioned into drawing storyboards for commercials and TV and occasionally doing pulp-style illustrations for magazines or calendars of pin-up gals you’d find in men’s workshops or garages.

His first storyboard was for Noxema after-shave.

“I did almost every kind of detergent you could think of, every kind of dog food and every kind of automobile,” he laughs.

IF YOU GO
‘Scott Pike and Friends’
What: Plymouth Harbor hosts its first Scott Pike exhibit featuring work by Pike and five of his friends: Jon Greeley, Richard Hora, Paul Jtineant, Joseph Palmerio and Joel Seiden. Wine and appetizers will be served.
When: takes place from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6
Where: Plymouth Harbor, 700 John Ringling Blvd.
Cost: Free
Info: Call 365-2600 

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