Smirk: "Welcome to my hanging" (photos)

[deminks]

U.S. President George W. Bush attends the unveiling of The Union League of Philadelphia's Portrait of the President at their headquarters in Philadelphia, December 6, 2008.
REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES)





U.S. President George W. Bush looks at himself with his hands on his hips as he attends the unveiling of The Union League of Philadelphia's Portrait of the President at their headquarters in Philadelphia, December 6, 2008. From L-R are: Bruce Hooper, Eileen Hooper, Bush and artist Mark Carder.
REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES)




President George W. Bush speaks at the unveiling of his portrait at The Union League of Philadelphia at their club in Philadelphia, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008.
(AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)

[MrScorpio]

1. That portrait is a Photoshopper's dream

Can't wait

[eleny]

10. Heh....heh

[SE_Ohio_Dem]

2. Good to see he had the sense to at least wear a democratic tie.

[tularetom]

3. He ain't very photogenic is he?

That portrait makes him look like an ignorant doofus. Well I guess it's an accurate portrayal then.

He always looks like he doesn't know what to do with his hands. Maybe he'd rather be playing pocket pool.

[lunatica]

31. I think Bush was trying not to smirk

And his face just can't do it without looking like he's schooling his face into an unnatural expression. The likeness is excellent because the artists truly captured Bush's dull look and awkward body stance. That portrait will stand out because it's the only one where gravitas and thoughtful intelligence is missing.

So now he has something to hang in his library next to the crotch shot.

[originalpckelly]

4. They have revealed the Mona Busha.

"That's the same face he makes while getting a colonoscopy."

[silverojo]

5. Amazing...the portrait is even uglier than the Chimperor

I didn't know it was possible....

[aquart]

6. Look at the hands.

Like the artist caught Bush tapping the table in boredom. Look at the slightly sunken chest and shoulders. Any second Bush's head and neck are going to disappear into turtle shoulders. And with the money that idiot pays for suits, why don't they fit?

[alfredo]

15. He might have been showing possession.

[Mnemosyne]

19. Kevlar, probably 24/7, little coward. n/t

[lunatica]

32. It's the bullet-proof vest and the testicle guard he wears

That's why he walks funny. It makes him strut while having to walk around the crotch cup bowlegged and swagger more. The lifts in his shoes are a problem also.

[charlie]

7. That's really creepy

Everything in the painting is done stylistically except Dubya, particularly his face, which is hyper-realistic. The effect is of a floating disembodied face, like an intrusion from another dimension. It even stands out in the photographs, where Dubya's eerie mug just POPS out at you.

[alphafemale]

29. Yeah...the face is almost Photo-Realism. The rest looks blocked in.

It is a creepy looking thing.

Glad this isn't going to be at the White House.

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Someone please tell me this isn't the "Official" portrait.

It is truly wretched.

[gratuitous]

8. Study of a prick in shades of brown

What a little turd.

[eleny]

9. The blank expression is perfect

[alittlelark]

11. His hands are disturbing, uncomfortable....

Very strange and disconcerting.
:scared:

[IDemo]

13. Not to mention he's touching a book

that would never happen in reality.

[shanti]

17. bible?

:shrug:

[alfredo]

14. The placement of hands could be an artist statement.

[OnyxCollie]

22. Joshua Bolton has photographs of bush's hands hanging in his office.

Yosh!
http://www.law.stanford.edu/publications/stanford_lawyer/issues/69/bolten.html

Bolten may be polite but he isn't by any stretch buttoned down. He's a big music buff, including country music, and plays guitar. He recites poetry, sometimes at great length. He keeps a copy of the best-selling children's book Walter the Farting Dog on his office's coffee table. His wall collection of Bush photos, typical throughout the White House complex, is unique. The pictures focus exclusively on Bush's hands at key moments in his presidency. Not a single photo of Bush's face can be found. "Josh is extremely eclectic," explained Card. "His knowledge base is much, much broader than just policy or budget numbers."

Psycho.

[kirby]

12. Looks lifeless...like at a funeral parlor.

and the portrait is worse. ;)

[TlalocW]

16. He's really made out to be a tiny, little man

In that photo. Both the proportion of his body to his head and the stance just make him look like a man who is completely out of place in his position, which is true.

I can't find it, but it makes me think of that picture of Bush at some overseas thing where he's just sitting in a humongous chair, puffing out his cheeks in boredom, looking very, very small.

TlalocW

[OnyxCollie]

23. Is it this picture?

Or this one?


Maybe this?


Perhaps he's trying to increase his stature by puffing his cheeks out.

[TlalocW]

38. It's the first picture but...

I remember the chair being a lot bigger so it must have been Photoshopped, but even in that picture, he's a little boy out of his element.

TlalocW

[OnyxCollie]

39. When I first posted the pictures,

I thought the first two were two shots from the same set of photos. Then I realized he was wearing different suits.

What an embarrassment.

[live love laugh]

18. The stupid fucker can't even stand up straight and yet the artist painted him that way...

The portrait actually looks like that of a man who has some substance/depth.

Too bad the world knows better. No wonder Boosh is amazed.

[Lint Head]

20. What an ugly peice of shit!

:dem:

[bluedawg12]

21. The Picture of Dorian Grey- Bush. Evil. Shudder.

He looks like a ghoul in this painting.

[proud patriot]

24. I got the heebee geebees reading that subject line

:wow:

[deminks]

25. I can't believe he actually joked about it.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/06/bush-welcome-to-my-hanging/

Today, President Bush presided over the unveiling of his presidential portrait, at the Union League. “Welcome to my hanging,” Bush joked to the crowd. The portrait “shows Bush staring straight ahead, looking comfortable but not quiet smiling, against the backdrop of the White House’s Treaty Room.” Bush said the painter, Mark Carder, “did a really fine job with a challenging subject.”

(end snip)

[alphafemale]

26. grandfather clock says ticktock motherf-cker ticktock

rot in hell

[peace frog]

27. They hung that asswipe's portrait next to

Abraham Lincoln's? Sacrilege! Dumbfuck doesn't belong on the same planet as Lincoln.

[Skittles]

28. bastard never got rid of that smirk

I hope he rots in hell

[Marr]

30. I certainly hope that's a bible on the table.

This portrait could make for some very interesting conversation in time, as people note that our most lawless "president"-- the man who made torture into a state operation and started wars based on lies-- was also the most openly religious one.

[lunatica]

33. When people walk past that painting they will say "His eyes are following me!"

It will make children have nightmares. It's literally a shocking portrait with him standing dead center looking straight at the viewer and it's also life size. That combination and the kind of pale yellowy color of his face will creep many thousands of people out from now on.

[cmf]

34. The portrait perfectly captures his vapidness and ineptitude.

But in times like these they should have saved the money and just copied this one.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

35. Portrait updated:

[RainDog]

36. this is the hanging he deserves

my father was a 17 y/o infantryman serving in Italy. his CO commanded all the infantry to march around mussolini and spit on him... along with the huge crowds of Italians who did the same.

when Bush took office and started his "imperial presidency" tactics, I reminded my sister that our father fought against just such dictatorial powers. my sister, in response, sent me our father's war medals.

I would gladly follow in my father's footsteps and spit on Bush because he was our first fascist president and I wish for him a fate just like the one Mussolini met.

I no longer have any respect for my sister.

[Lars39]

37. Possible symbolism? Time for him to go(view of outside)?