[mmanfrin]

I think people judging it for the sake of the art are missing the point. To me, the pieces scream of depression. His legs in a still bath? Staring in to a mirror in the shower?

What do you imagine life to be in the waning retirement years of the former president of the most powerful country on earth? What a jarring contrast it must be.

[sdh]

I agree. The art doesn't have to be good or hung in a gallery to be of value.

The paintings represent an new, and perhaps candid insight into the thoughts and feelings of a former president. They might reveal something we wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to observe. GWB may not even know what he's revealing about himself.

My take on the paintings is that they project a sense of loneliness, separation, and introspection.

very interesting.

[watmough]

I think that shower painting is just brilliant, in a Spike Milligan sort of way.

It seriously does make me like the guy more.

[d23]

I'm not sure I have a whole lot to add that you two haven't said, but the way his reflection in mirror is so far away from his actual head and the smallness of it... wow, he suddenly seems so human to me. I have chills.

I know he put on the tough front of "you can't regret anything and I'd invade again," but who can't look at this and think he's having second thoughts?

[jeffdavis]

How can any president not spend their retirement reflecting on their decisions? Many decisions have a lot of collateral damage even if they are the right decisions.

[akozak]

I definitely see that. I also see him grappling with identity, likely the result of his years with (relatively) carefully managed presentation. In the mirror painting, we don't see the front of his body directly, only a limited reflection that he chooses to show us. And we're given a peek through is eyes in the bathtub, but with only limited parts of his body exposed from out of the water. It's like he's trying to express that there's more to him as a person than what we saw.

[mynameishere]

Since Nixon, all the presidents have been actors and nothing more. They realize this, and the malaise probably sets in at some time. GWB would have been a competent office manager. BHO would have been a good high school principal.

[gadders]

Winston Churchill was a painter as well [1]. I think you're reading too much into it.

[1] http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=667

[maxerickson]

Bill Clinton seems to be having fun.