George W. Bush, painter of puppies and semi-nude bathroom self-portraits

"He started off painting dogs. I think he said he painted 50 dogs," says painting teacher Bonnie Flood of her student, George W. Bush.

"He pulled out this canvas and started painting dogs and I thought, 'Oh my God, I don't paint dogs!"

There's video. As you may recall, images of the former president's paintings also showed up in a series of hacked emails published last month by "Guccifer." Those images included "purported self-portraits of the 43rd president in the shower and the bath."

Washington Post Art and Architecture Critic Philip Kennicott critiques the work here. The hacked work, not to be confused with the work of a hack.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop

Well, he’s finally found an activity that matches his intellectual level.
- Andrew Singleton
  
  Dude not funny. Just because he was a terrible president and the congress that was under his administration and this one drove us into the ground doens’t mean you should insult the man for his trying to do something else with his life.
  
  I kinda like some of the dog prints. The nudes not so much.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop
    
    You’re so right, I should only judge him by the standard of ex presidents. Let’s see, what have former presidents been up to? Building houses for the homeless and other philanthropic work, sitting on the boards of non-profits and think-tanks, doing diplomatic work… and doing paintings of puppies. Funny how what the presidents did after their presidencies tells us so much about them…
    - Brian Boyko
      
      Look, the guy’s trying to better himself. That’s something we should all get behind. Granted, with Bush it’s a low bar…
      - http://www.facebook.com/marko.raos Marko Raos
        
        In that case, he has quite a lot of puppies to paint…
  - James Kelley
    
    He’s got blood on his hands that’ll never wash off. I’d say it’s okay to make fun of him about anything, anytime, forever.
    - lafave
      
      Name a President without blood on his hands.
      - James Kelley
        
        He’s got more blood on his hands than any other president from my lifetime.
      - lafave
        
        Sounds like a tribal response – Obama has drastically increased the drone strikes since Bush left office and LBJ and Nixon with Vietnam and Laos.
        
        At least Bush never said he had the right to kill Americans without trial at his sole discretion.
        
        Please don’t consider this a defense of Bush. I think they’re all horrible people without ethics or morality. It’s a job requirement for President.
      - James Kelley
        
        Yeah, pretty sure it’s not the president’s responsibility to weave a web of lies in order to scare the nation into supporting the illegal invasion of a sovereign nation which had never attacked us. You can parry my initial statement all you want, but Bush should be swinging from a gallows by now, not painting dogs.
- Mister44
  
  Sooo – I have a BFA – I guess that makes me daherp derp?
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop
    
    Hopefully you’re not doing unironic kitsch paintings of puppies.
    (I have a fine arts degree, too.)
    - http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai
      
      I mean, hold up, when we get down to it, I’d rather unironic kitsch than ironic kitsch.
  - http://twitter.com/TrashPainter Lydia Rae Black
    
    After I graduated in the same major and went out to find a job, I certainly felt that way.
    I’m still considering an MFA, because getting a loan is easier than getting paid enough to eat.
- awjt
  
  “In our world there lives a happy little drone, right over there.”
- msbpodcast
  
  And he’s about as primitif naïf an artist as he was a president…
  
  Give him another three generations and he might make someone I would let paint a fence.
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/I3OIAMDSFPWH3CYFDYCLTEN32E The Evil Steve
    
    I am very very happy that Dubya is doing something creative that he enjoys. It kills time – his own time. Time he isn’t using to unintentionally kill companies he could run or soldiers he could lobby into war.
    
    If dude wants to paint his own junk, more power to him. Every hour he stands naked and alone with a paintbrush in his hand is an hour he isn’t flexing his Merde-as touch on the rest of us.
- barb jacobs
  
  So being a painter makes you a moron? (said the professional artist) Reeeally? I don’t like the W administration any more than any other sane person- but your comment is ridiculous. Check out the IQs of some of the masters in art. You ignorant sop.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop
    
    I actually have an MFA, so no, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that painting kitsch, emotionally empty, intellectually vapid non-art images of cute puppy dogs is about the intellectual level that Bush displayed while in office.
voiceinthedistance

Imagine an alternate universe where George was a successful baseball team owner who got satisfaction from dabbling in “art”, and I still had some measure of faith in the American electoral process.
- awjt
  
  And John McCain and Sarah Palin were in office because everybody was tired of Al Gore? NO THANKS.
  - http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai
    
    Mostly I can’t understand even pretending that Jeb might run in THIS reality; they did a great job keeping GWB out of the news during 2012, but how are they going to do that in 2016 if Jeb runs?
    - http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
      
      If Jeb runs I will contribute to the effort that runs a shadow campaign entitled Florida Man.
    - Frank Lee Scarlett
      
      You’re forgetting that political years are like dog years. By the time 2016 rolls around, the electorate’s mind will have once again been wiped clean of previous distractions, and filled up with sparkling brand new distractions.
      
      Nowadays, aside from Koch and Rove inventions, we can count on the weather to provide at least 2-5 major events to politicize. And who can tell when fracking/glacial melting/the opening of the Northwest Passage will present us with 201x’s equivalent of the Exxon Valdez or Deepwater Horizon?
      
      roast beaf: Look! Over there! Shiny!! Bad!
      allspeiss: NO. Good! Good! Good!
      roast beaf: No! Bad! Badly Bad!
      allspeiss: Good! God’s Will!
      …
  - 10xor01
    
    I very much doubt that McCain would have picked Palin in this scenario.
    - awjt
      
      Possibly true. I was using Occam’s Razor rather bluntly.
- chaopoiesis
  
  Imagine an alternate universe where a sax-playin’, junk-food-snarfin’, everyday dude named Bill hadn’t scored 8 years in the White House.
  
  W never wanted to be President – he got drafted for the role because the people who decide such things realized populists had become hot sellers, and they needed one too.
  
  5 will get you 10 W’s a much happier dude these days.
  - awjt
    
    I’m no Bush fan. I’m liberal. Except for his dad declining in health right now, I’m sure GWB is super psyched not to have to be Prez anymore. Jeb on the other hand… well, I can see him in his lair, rubbing his hands together, thinking about how he’s gonna take down Chris Christie.
  - http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
    
    He’s definitely happier.
    
    Imagine that first day of terror when he entered the race.
    
    Just sitting there at his desk, losing money due to a complete lack of biz acumen, dreaming about playing ball rather than owning a chunk of team…
    
    …Suddenly, BAM, jack booted thugs kick the door in, toss flashbangs everywhere, BAM BAM BAM, he’s blinded, he chokes on the fumes, he is overcome…blackness.
    
    When he comes to, he’s on the floor, his pants around his ankles. A new pain but familiar, strange, not since college days… his hazing, yes, like that.
    
    And what else, he can barely breathe, a huge weight on his chest and neck… he dares to open his eyes!
    
    Darkness… darkness slowly pulls back revealing the gaping figure eight of black death that is the business end of a double barrelled shotgun, a hunting weapon, slowly drawing away from his eyes, and beyond those fearsome caves?
    
    A large, ugly man, surrounded by the jack booted thugs that had stormed his office.
    
    The man smiles and says, “I see I have your attention. When I step down off your neck and chest I will hear you say the words Yes and Sir, in that order, or I’ll blow your head clean off, don’t care who your daddy is.”
    
    Bush coughs, the man doesn’t move off his chest, off his neck. He continues “You’ll say yes and sir because you are being drafted son, you’re going to be the next leader of the free world. You’ve got all I really need, a pulse, a healthy fear of me, and name recognition”
    
    With that, Cheney steps off his chest and neck, pulls back two hammers and levels his weapon at Bush’s face again…
    
    … Bush says the only thing he thinks might keep him alive another few minutes.. “Yes Sir”
    - chaopoiesis
      
      Not on the rug, man.
Hulla Hullajump

hello
remenber you can see what a “bad dog painting” can be at the moba
like ‘ronan the pug”
http://www.museumofbadart.org/coll8/image04.php

or “charli and sheba”
http://www.museumofbadart.org/coll8/image02.php
PhosPhorious

You know who else was a painter?

Matisse.
- voiceinthedistance
  
  Group show: George W. Bush and Adolph Hitler. Did Pol Pot paint, also?
  - davegroff
    
    Churchill painted
  - http://timnafziger.com/ mennonot
    
    Humor 202: When the punchline is in what’s _not_ said, saying that unsaid thing doesn’t make it funnier.
  - http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood
    
    Goddmit he said Matisse. And you had to go and get all mustachey.
  - http://www.facebook.com/marko.raos Marko Raos
    
    Hitler painted roses…
- http://www.somelovemusic.com/ Tuff Luke
  
  This joke made my day. And it’s not even noon where I am.
  - awjt
    
    Yeah, this made my day too.
- Snig
  
  If there were a Godwin Prize for humour, I would nominate this joke.
- Jonathan Roberts
  
  I’d compare him more to Prince Charles. They’re probably both fairly nice people to meet and I can imagine sharing some similar interests – you just don’t want either of them to have any have real power. Their artwork seems to be more a hobby or a way to reflect than any serious attempt at recognition by critics. In that sense, it’s perfectly ok, just nothing to get excited about.
- robuluz
  
  The internet has just finished it’s work, and can now be safely dismantled.
Napalm Dog

Now imagine what kind of political juggernaut Bob Ross could have been!
annoyingmouse

“Cumming artist teaches George W. Bush how to paint”

And this is a link you want me to click on? Oh I see the word “Fox”. They would be able to find an artist who gets that excited about working with Bush…
Jean Baptiste

Well, they look a lot like dogs, and that’s what he was going for. I couldn’t do any better. Good for him, I say :)
bardfinn

Awwww. He loved that dog.
blueelm

I like him better as a painter.
- Felton / Moderator
  
  I agree. He missed his calling.
- chgoliz
  
  Talk about damning with faint praise!
- Frank Lee Scarlett
  
  And just think of the political disasters that could have been averted. Hitler was Furiousaurus Rex because he was an illegitimate, angry, homeless ex-Corporal with gassed lungs, with no money and no connections to get him into art school.
  
  Dubya, on the other hand, could still be “refining his style” at any one of the world’s art academies. Come to think of it, he would have hit the art world at the height of 80s money-throwing. One less David Salle, one more Dub Bush.
snagglepuss

Interesting. His eye for realism in his paintings is far greater than his eye for any realism where his political policies were concerned.
- welcomeabored
  
  **snort** Love the irony.
Felton / Moderator

Well, he’s no Ben Kingsley.
- gtrjnky
  
  It’s Sir Ben to you.
- Rich Keller
  
  And Barney was a far cry from Petey.
Brian McKeever

Dude just embodies the term, “The banality of evil.”
welcomeabored

Actually, they’re not half bad (also only half good), but here’s the part the bugs me… when and if they ever go on the market, they’ll sell for big bucks for no better reason than they were painted by a former POTUS. Woo-hoo.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

Fifty paintings of doggies?

Just think, if he sold those at $20,000,000,000 each he could pay for the Iraq War!
http://twitter.com/chrisjimson chris jimson

Finally, something he’s actually semi-competent at.
Rich Keller

I’ll have to try his technique of matching the background to my shirt some time.
- Jean Baptiste
  
  I noticed that right off, but didn’t wanna make fun of him for it. Nothing wrong with just pointing it out, though, I guess. Because the crab in the background painting, a couple of vases on the shelf in his studio (?), and another painting (?) at the very bottom of the photo all kinda have that “swimming pool turquoise” hue to them.
  
  Maybe it’s just his favorite color…
  - Jean Baptiste
    
    Jeez, and the “43″ on the painting of Barney is blue too! So I looked it up and yep his favorite color IS blue. His “favorite painting” is mostly blue as well, and has a funny story to go along with it:
    
    http://eyeteeth.blogspot.com/2008/01/george-w-bushs-favorite-painting.html
CraigDanger

“Oh, I like this one… One dog goes one way, the other dog goes the other way, and this guy’s sayin’, “Whadda ya want from me?’ Guy’s got a nice head of white hair, it’s beautiful.”
http://twitter.com/daniloberga Danilo Albergaria

I´m not ashamed to say I liked the bathtub one.
- welcomeabored
  
  I was photography major in college and early on was running around with a borrowed 35mm taking pictures of everything that interested me, including a photo of my own legs and feet floating at the other end of a clawfoot bathtub, while the water ran… just like the governor… and I find that very disturbing, cuz I consider myself to be a human being, and him (his administration and policies) less so.
  
  I’m reminded of Hannah Ahrendt writing of the banality of evil; how the most ordinary of people could committ the most egregious of atrocities against other people. Hitler painted, of course, and he wasn’t half bad.
  - http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
    
    Yeah and Frida Kahlo did the same kind of picture too.
http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/ tristan eldritch

He’s a bit like Rolf Harris, except instead of singing a song about two little boys who became soldiers, he sent thousands of them to their deaths in an ill-conceived and arguably illegal war.
- Frank Lee Scarlett
  
  Which has irreparably damaged US foreign policy in the middle east, and the world, for who knows how many decades.
  
  Utterly disastrous.
Mister44

He isn’t half bad.
- Diogenes
  
  True. More like 7/8ths.
Navin_Johnson

I kind of like the crab in the background..
missmimipoppy

Count me as one who loathed George Bush the president, yet, I find myself wanting to give the guy a chance in this pursuit.

Being an artist might lead him to another level of awareness that he might not achieve otherwise.

Life is weird that way and he might surprise us in his art journey.
- 10xor01
  
  “I find myself wanting to give the guy a chance in this pursuit.”
  Me too. Right after he finishes his sentence for war crimes.
  - Frank Lee Scarlett
    
    If he’s been on good behavior for a few years, there’s no reason he wouldn’t be able to paint in the pen.
    
    In fact, I bet the snazzy lawyers he can afford could probably convince the court to allow him to paint his days away as soon as he starts his sentence. A true artist would love the focus and clarity provided by the distraction-free setting of cushy solitary. And it’s not like he’d be short on commissary ducats.
10xor01

Signing with “43″? Even when he paints cut little dogs his trademark dickishness shines through.
- Jean Baptiste
  
  Agreed. But at least he’s limiting the reference to himself, on paintings he himself painted, as opposed to attempting to repackage an entire generation with his own presidential number…
  
  http://www.barackobama.com/gen44
Matt Palenske

What if this guy was painting dogs right now?
http://imgur.com/BY0rKv1
Andrew Tubbiolo

Okay that’s it. Artists need to be kept away from the executive branch of government.
oschene

You take Thomas Kincade and replace the DNA with Cool Ranch Dorito dust — there you go.
feetleet

I have a fever. And the only prescription is moar aquamarines.

Also, I don’t know about you guys, but I only step out of the stream and into the corner of the shower like that for one of two activities. And the facing of the mirror? There’s either a second mirror or a second old guy out of frame. G-dubs, you sly irreverent.
http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

Everyone in the world right now, simultaneously: “Bush can paint?”
Jake Rennie

Something turns up that shows that George W. Bush has more dimensions as a human being than simply being an unpopular politician, and all anyone has to say about it is that it proves the common theory that he is dumb. He has started painting only late in life. My grandpa can’t play the ukulele like someone who started learning as a younger person, but I don’t mock him for it. I wish people would learn to see one another as human beings, rather than being unable to look past their political views, opinions, and differences.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I wish people would learn to see one another as human beings, rather than being unable to look past their political views, opinions, and differences.
  
  People have political views; Presidents have war crimes.
  - Jake Rennie
    
    So becoming the president removes your status as a person? Is the same true of any other public figure or celebrity? These aren’t hypothetical questions – I’m interested in the reasoning behind this. I don’t want to argue about whether Bush or Tony Blair are war criminals. They probably are, but I prefer to have no opinion on that sort of thing, same with the Palestine/Israel issue.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      So becoming the president removes your status as a person?
      
      I have never given an order for someone (or many someones) to be killed. Yet. The last three Presidents are directly responsible for actions that have led to more than a million deaths.
      
      I prefer to have no opinion on that sort of thing, same with the Palestine/Israel issue.
      
      That’s called privilege. If you were living in Gaza or Iraq or Afghanistan or….. you wouldn’t have that luxury.
      - Jake Rennie
        
        That’s true, I’ll be sure to “check” it. Neutrality is definitely a luxury. As a side-note, when you say the last three, do you include Obama under “last” or do you mean Bush, Clinton and Bush?
        
        I’d just like to examine Bush as a person instead of as a president/war criminal/public figure for once. Despite his atrocities, Hitler has already been examined as a person and an artist extensively. Arguably, Bush probably wouldn’t be as interesting as Adolf, but it would be nice to paint a more complete portrait of the man.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Actually, I was thinking Obama, Bush and Bush. Clinton’s eight years were remarkably conflict-free.
      - robuluz
        
        Hitler has already been examined as a person and an artist extensively.
        
        And turned out to be considerably more notable for one than the other.
      - blueelm
        
        This is where the banality of evil part comes in. Himmler had a love of art. All people are people. Some people are bigger assholes than other people. And some people are bigger assholes than others and in positions of great power.
        
        Why does this suddenly feel like a Smiths song?
      - IronEdithKidd
        
        The last 3 presidents? Surely you mean the last 5.
- Petzl
  
  It’s true. Maybe in 10 or 20 years, he’ll realize what a complete idiot he was while in office.
Petzl

Am I too late to mention Hitler did great watercolors?? I am? Shucks.
http://www.facebook.com/saorsa.brighde Andy T Coombs

He has a similar brush technique to John Wayne Gacy but without all the clowns and mysterious mounds of dirt.
http://www.facebook.com/dimitrios.papagiannis Dimitrios Papagiannis

This is the Internet. I don’t believe anything anymore.
rocketpj

I’d much prefer he was painting puppies and taking baths than out doing more of that warmongering he used to love so much.

I like to futz about with art in some forms as well, and will never be good at it. But on the other hand I have never decided to kill hundreds of thousands of people based on a convenient lie, so there is that difference.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000630096369 Alison Jasonides

I like the nudes. There is a psychological darkness I feel to them even if I didn’t know that they were painted by G.B. Beyond my estimation of him as a painter– as a president– my read on Bush is probably informed by Oliver Stone: I feel he was a pawn of much stronger men.
ChickieD

It’s really a long journey to become a good artist. You have to learn the tools and materials first. Is a dog a very impressive subject? No, but it doesn’t matter what he paints at first, as long as it holds his interest while he learns.
http://profile.yahoo.com/V7GPFRFEYSWOIQGLEDPUEUWVRU Anni

Hrhr… Hitler’s paintings were better. He still was a very unsuccessful painter though before becoming a politician :D
http://profile.yahoo.com/V7GPFRFEYSWOIQGLEDPUEUWVRU Anni

And if you ask me, Bush’s paintings have a creepy “Paint by Number”-ish look…
a_hick_in_hixville

His paintings are marginally better than Hitler’s sociopathic architectural renderings, but his misplaced sense of self importance, one must truthfully concede, has (so far) also been responsible for fewer deaths than that of the performance kitschmeister from Linz. The photo of him in painter’s apron with the goofy look on his face reminds me of that hippy turned painter from the 70s who had the PBS show teaching kids how to paint “happy little trees.” Bob somethingorother. (Or perhaps a Thomas Kinkade marketing photo.)

If only W. had just stuck with painting dogs, and ruining baseball teams, rather than politics, is like pondering if Hitler had emigrated to America and wound up an illustrator for pulp magazines and comic books.