{"id":19346,"date":"2015-06-27T13:47:47","date_gmt":"2015-06-27T20:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=19346"},"modified":"2015-06-27T13:47:47","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T20:47:47","slug":"fanciful-art-envisions-bank-windows-as-a-fish-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/fanciful-art-envisions-bank-windows-as-a-fish-tank\/","title":{"rendered":"Fanciful art envisions bank windows as a fish tank"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Whimsical watercolor by Dan Thomas illustrates how he\u2019d change the look of the U.S. Bank branch in San Anselmo. Photo by Woody Weingarten.<\/p>\n

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The real U.S. Bank building in San Anselmo \u2014 inspiration for Dan Thomas\u2019 whimsy. Photo by Woody Weingarten.<\/p>\n
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Dan Thomas holds one of his fanciful ideas on how to re-face U.S. Bank branch. Photo by Woody Weingarten.<\/p>\n
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Watercolor sketches represent Dan Thomas\u2019 fanciful look at U.S. Bank branch. Photo by Woody Weingarten.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Can you imagine the front of the four-story U.S. Bank building in downtown San Anselmo as an oversized fish tank?<\/p>\n

Dan Thomas can.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s done something about it.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s taken him 40 years to scratch his inner itch about the structure, to shrink his edifice complex.<\/p>\n

His weaponry? Watercolors.<\/p>\n

And whimsy.<\/p>\n

It happened last month, when Dan, my longtime next-door neighbor in San Anselmo, painted \u201ca series of fantasies conceptualizing how the bank branch might improve its look.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until then, the high-rise \u2014 by town standards, at least \u2014 merely aggravated Dan every time he passed it.<\/p>\n

His problem?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe building, which was constructed in 1962, didn\u2019t fit the surrounding environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan sits at my dining room table displaying his watercolor sketches. And jabbering like he\u2019s stumbled onto a second childhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust before I drew the first parody, the fish tank,\u201d he says, \u201cI thought, \u2018Let\u2019s see if I can have some fun.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, for a second I thought maybe I and the bank could be playful. Maybe the bank would let me decorate it for a couple of months. But then I decided the bankers, a serious lot, would be unlikely to see the humor in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this, of course, is strictly in my head \u2014 it\u2019s all make-believe.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t approached U.S. Bank at all. I have no real plan to ask the bank to change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sketches, Dan tells me with mischievous twinkles in both blue eyes, involve \u201chumor, what-if\u2019s and a play of colors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bank\u2019s window treatment, explains the retired architect, \u201cis six-inch thick concrete, 16 feet wide, 32 feet high, two feet deep. The top and bottom segments form a complete circle. There are eight circles over all. I used to visualize that the only thing that would [help] would be to make window treatments with fish tanks with live fish. The idea stayed with me. So I finally sketched it, to scale, as if it were an architectural rendering.\u201d<\/p>\n

His initial plan was only to do that one concept, but he became so motivated he concocted a dozen fanciful sketches in only two weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy idea was to give the Town Council a humorous view of the building \u2014 as a cautionary tale \u2014 to remind them you can\u2019t turn back once you\u2019ve made a decision. Had the council gone ahead with its original General Plan, the town would have had 10-story buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n

I almost choke on the thought.<\/p>\n

I like San Anselmo for what it is, a quaint, little town despite being a refuge for coffee buffs, boutique shoppers and upscale bicyclists.<\/p>\n

Noticing my discomfort, Dan placates me \u2014 grinning.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, remember this is make-believe, even though a real fish tank actually could be built with Plexiglas and a little bit of cork.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once he\u2019d retired, Dan returned to an early love \u2014 painting. He worked mainly on landscapes, but now again dabbles in abstracts. He\u2019s good enough to have won prizes, including firsts, at Marin and Napa county fairs \u2014 as well as Marin Society of Artists juried shows in Ross.<\/p>\n

Now 79, he remembers once painting \u201cfull time, mostly allegorical paintings, working my way through my religious upbringing as a strict Pentecostal.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, of course, is miles from imagining fish in windows at the 46-feet, 6-inch high site, where for years I\u2019ve banked in the tallest building in town.<\/p>\n

One of Dan\u2019s watercolors is tied to \u201cthe good economic times\u201d we\u2019re experiencing anew, featuring \u201cdrinks on the house \u2014 cocktail glasses filled to the brim.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another, a series of sunglasses symbolize \u201cwarm periods \u2014 sunny days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soup cans also became a happy construct. Although the Andy Warhol tribute might allude to soup lines, the artist says he intended to evoke \u201ca \u2018Happy Days Are Here Again\u2019 feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

One striking piece is a light-hearted plea for egalitarianism. Faces become a commercial for both bank and<\/em> tolerance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means, \u2018We serve all nationalities,\u2019\u201d Dan says.<\/p>\n

Taken as a whole, the sketches comprise his \u201cfirst attempt at humor in art \u2014 I\u2019m a pretty serious character in a lot of ways \u2014 although these may have loosened me up a bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working on one right now where I\u2019m putting a hand-painted silk tie right in the middle of an abstract painting that looks like a vest.\u201d<\/p>\n

I postulate he\u2019s now in-vested in projecting a less-serious attitude.<\/p>\n

Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or http:\/\/vitalitypress.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can you imagine the front of the four-story U.S. Bank building in downtown San Anselmo as an oversized fish tank? Dan Thomas can. And he\u2019s done something about it. But…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"