Description
George W. Bush, or simply W., he is the second son of a former United States president to himself become president, with the first being John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams. Bush’s upbringing in West Texas, his accent, his vacations on his Texas ranch, and his penchant for country metaphors contribute to his folksy, American cowboy image.
W. was been constantly roasted by the mainstream press, comedians, and other politicians. His never ending linguistic errors made during public speeches, which are colloquially referred to as Bushism are often cited by his detractors. The guys in my game night group often use the same word, “strategery” that Will Ferrell used to satirized Bush on Saturday Night Live when we describe the unexplainable decisions we make during a game.
Adding to his folksy image the use of strategery took off and was adopted as a catchphrase by W. when his White House established the The Department of Strategery. The Prime Minister of England, Tony Blair, wrote that the caricature of Bush as being dumb is “ludicrous” and that Bush is “very smart”. It was often said that W. was 60 IQ points smarter in private than he was in public. Contrary to current day politicians, when he didn’t want anyone to think he was the smartest person in the room he’d put on his folksy Texas act. Current politicians by contrast constantly attempt to sound smarter and in doing so remove any doubt that perhaps their IQ is lower than the voters who put them in a position of authority.
In this painting I attempted to capture the West Texas folksy genius that graduated from Yale, graduated from Harvard, flew jets for the National Guard, co-owned the Texas Ranger baseball team, was the Governor of Texas, the President of the United States, and also said “Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger. In Texas, we call it walkin’.”
