I admit it: When I first heard about George W. Bush taking up painting, I thought it was kind of, well, adorable. The presidency is so world-changingly important, so wracked with life-or-death decisions, that the idea of an ex-prez doddering around at his ranch with a paintbrush, illustrating quiet pastoral landscapes, struck me as aw-shucks sweet and even kind of poignant.
Obviously, I'm not alone in this assessment. Type "George W. Bush" into Google and, no joke, "George W. Bush paintings" pops up first. Not "George W. Bush Iraq War" or "George W. Bush Hurricane Katrina" or "George W. Bush Holy Shit What Just Happened to the Economy," but "George W. Bush Paintings." Ya know, because he's a cute old-man painter now!
Dubya's paintings, which were initially leaked to the public, are even now on display at his presidential library in Dallas, Texas. His illustrations of world leaders are being presented with the glossy title, "The Art of Leadership: A President's Personal Diplomacy."
Listen, if Bush wants to present his (maybe mediocre) paintings to the world, more power to him. And I still think the fact that he's painting in the first place is pretty darn precious. The problem is that it's all too easy to leap from thinking Bush the painter is harmless and cute to thinking Bush the former president is harmless and cute.
Indeed, last July, it was revealed that for the first time since 2005, more Americans viewed W. favorably than unfavorably. There are any number of reasons this could be the case, but might it have something to with the fact that the poll came out just a few short months after W.'s "adorable" paintings were leaked?
Here's the thing: with each new brush stroke, Bush is painting over disastrous past misdeeds to fabricate a false impression of wholesome goodness. He is swapping real-life scenes of war-time death with illustrations of peaceful vistas. And in the case of his world leaders exhibit, he is taking complicated figures from a tortured time of international diplomacy and making them look like sweet, cartoonish children. One can forgive Bush for wanting such escape from his altogether rather terrible presidency and the undeniable difficulties of leading the free world, but that doesn't mean we're justified in blindly accepting his illusions:
Whatever people think of Mr Bush’s politics, and his legacy, they will probably find it hard not to warm to his post-presidential persona. — Financial Times, ", Bush’s brushstrokes paint a warmer legacy
It's hard not to wonder if these warm and lovely paintings are really what we should be hanging on the walls of history.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
