Some of the the e-mail accounts operated by the Bush family were hacked recently by someone known as Guccifer and the Secret Service is investigating the matter. Apparently, phone numbers, secret codes and the like were leaked to the public, but no smoking gun ala 9/11 for example. What is interesting are two self-portraits by the United States of America's most recent dictato..., er, uh, President.
I am not an art critic, but I like paintings. The two hacked and or released George W. Bush paintings are not only self-portraits but are also semi-nude works. Furthermore, they depict the act of bathing. I don't need to drag out my dusty edition of the Rodent's Thetharus (rhymes with Petraeus) to note what the act of bathing symbolizes. But, still. Come on!
Below is Self-Portrait #1, what I'll title "Bush Shower". Please study it well. On the one hand it is a fairly competent rendering of of our ex-dictat..., er, uh, dammit, I mean, President, taking a pleasant shower. And who in this great country of ours doesn't want to enjoy a nice hot, non-political, pleasant shower?
First, what strikes the viewer, besides the implication that our most recent ex-President is not only painting in the off-season*, but doing serious semi-nudes, is that Bush's back is toward the viewer. His face is seen, though, in an oblique shaving mirror, but only partially, as we see only his eyes [the mirrors of the soul] and his nose and his right ear [shades of JFK -Dallas]. Now before any of you conspiracy nuts go off half-cocked, these photos were taken with the canvas on the easel. So, there is no symbolism regarding the brown "object" above the shower head. Anyway...our ex-Furh...er, I mean, President, seems to shower in the usual spartan of areas. Although the painting seems to reveal a lot about the artist through his use of the semi-nude, very little is actually revealed. Some purists, of course, will intimate that our ex-dict...er, uh, President, may or may not, be masturbating. But, I'll let the Joyce Brothers among youse hash that one out.
From a purely aesthetic viewpoint, the second self-portrait from George W. Bush is more rewarding. I'll call it "Bush Bathtub". Once again in the act bathing, perhaps washing off that blood from the Endless War he used as a pretext for the revenge of 9/11 - ooops, dammit, extrapolating again - anyhow, we see our ex-stolen elect----um, I mean, President, taking a nice relaxing hot bath. Really, who among us Americans of these great United States don't enjoy a nice relaxing hot bath?
I mean, what the flying fuck of fucks is going on here? Well for one thing, our ex-supreme lea----, golly fuck it, I mean President, has not only pulled off an interesting scene, he has addressed the vagaries of water! In an odd, ex-presidential sort of way, Bush has imagined not only the bobbing nature of the legs in water, but the water itself as it cascades out of the faucet and envelopes the legs of the artist himself. It is almost photogenic in its innocent, or the conspiracy mongers about us might surmise, photoshopped! For some reason, Bush's rendering of the water itself hypnotizes in ways I can not...well, recall.
It's fitting when one thinks about these paintings. Water as metaphor for waterboarding and the cleansing nature of such water as a way to assuage oneself of the dirty blood of wars carried on by his self-portraitizing current occupier of the White House. Whatever one may think about our ex-crazy----, I mean, President, we cannot say he is without, perhaps, a self-revelatory nature than most of the so-called liberals would care to admit.
*= Bush likes pro baseball
I am not an art critic, but I like paintings. The two hacked and or released George W. Bush paintings are not only self-portraits but are also semi-nude works. Furthermore, they depict the act of bathing. I don't need to drag out my dusty edition of the Rodent's Thetharus (rhymes with Petraeus) to note what the act of bathing symbolizes. But, still. Come on!
Below is Self-Portrait #1, what I'll title "Bush Shower". Please study it well. On the one hand it is a fairly competent rendering of of our ex-dictat..., er, uh, dammit, I mean, President, taking a pleasant shower. And who in this great country of ours doesn't want to enjoy a nice hot, non-political, pleasant shower?
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| (Self-Portrait #1. by George W. Bush) |
From a purely aesthetic viewpoint, the second self-portrait from George W. Bush is more rewarding. I'll call it "Bush Bathtub". Once again in the act bathing, perhaps washing off that blood from the Endless War he used as a pretext for the revenge of 9/11 - ooops, dammit, extrapolating again - anyhow, we see our ex-stolen elect----um, I mean, President, taking a nice relaxing hot bath. Really, who among us Americans of these great United States don't enjoy a nice relaxing hot bath?
 |
| (Self-Portrait #2, by George W. Bush) |
It's fitting when one thinks about these paintings. Water as metaphor for waterboarding and the cleansing nature of such water as a way to assuage oneself of the dirty blood of wars carried on by his self-portraitizing current occupier of the White House. Whatever one may think about our ex-crazy----, I mean, President, we cannot say he is without, perhaps, a self-revelatory nature than most of the so-called liberals would care to admit.
*= Bush likes pro baseball
I believe the bath painting is of the legs of his wife and her "man chaps" with the senior Bush (or Jeb) getting some sort of rusty trombone action in the invisible foreground...quite well done for an incestual modernistic piece. The shower piece is more of a "Dick Cheney is yelling at me" sort of introspective moment.
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