George W. Bush, The Painter

          I was annihilated by shock and awe when I saw the recently leaked images of oil paintings made by none other than former and possibly one of the worst presidents ever, George W. Bush. Who knew? But the wildest, most wacked out thing about it is that I actually really like the paintings. I have only seen two. Both are paintings of a man in a bathroom. Presumably these are self-portraits though you can't really see his face in either one. In the first, he stands without shirt on, grey haired, facing away from the painter.
          The only glimpse we get of his face is in the small circular mirror in front of him. We can barely see it and so there is no obvious resemblance to the 41st President of the United States. The other one is a view that just shows the man's legs in a tub of water as he takes his bath. Its, well, odd. Although each one doesn't necessarily  reveal the presence of some great draughtsmen like Da Vinci or Rafeal or whoever, they fascinate me and not only because of who the painter is.
         There is a playfulness to them. They are not hyper-detailed ultra realistic depictions of the human body in a closed space. They are painted and you can tell.
Already I have seen stories from various websites where big Art critics have come out of the wood-work to spew their psycho babble in a cohesive manner. One guy from the New Republic linked the bathtub painting to G.W's regret over his handling of Hurricane Katrina. Really? What can we tell from the actual paintings by looking at them with out a thought about who painted them?
         A few things: The subject does not want to be looked at. He faces away from the painting and the view of the painter, who is doing the looking and from us. The subject is alone in a space that is usually closed off from others while being used. (Aka: a restroom in the home) Issues of Isolation, Reflection, and Peace vibe off the paintings without trying too hard and that's a nice thing to pull off. They are wonderfully simple. I like the playful style and the odd, sorta anti-portrait portrait function thats going on. They are also unpretentious as hell. I just wish the man who made these two paintings would have been a painter instead of a President.