George Washington Riding Atop a Bald Eagle...

A while back, Matthew Inman (the Oatmeal) had this great post on how to get more likes on Facebook. The thesis was basically that one should focus on making things people actually like. That is, "...create things that are hilarious, sad, beautiful, interesting, inspiring, or simply awesome." Inman went on to provide several awesome suggestions, including "create a sing-along video explaining how to properly load a dishwasher," but I couldn't shake one suggestion in particular.

"Paint a portrait of George Washington defeating Skynet while riding atop a bald eagle."

To get the image out of my head, I made this. It's not a painting, and George is displaying the disembodied head of a generic robot overlord, not Skynet, but I hope it captures some small fraction of the awesomeness.

Thanks to Inman for the inspiration and to my wife Jess for putting up with my incessant yammering about what a cool mental image it was and how I should do something with it. Also, she suggested I add the sparks. :)

As one might expect, a number of others have risen to the challenge. Here's a sampling. Click a thumbnail to visit the original.