![]() Eventually, I put the question to him directly. The pain was simply too palpable to be a matter of mere technique, reflecting a level of compassion and insight that can only be earned through genuine lived experience. Looking at the painting, I couldn’t shake the perception that Bush was also expressing something of his own state of mind. But I don’t want to in any way put out an image that would trouble somebody.” “And of course that’s exactly what you’d expect him to tell the commander-in-chief. “He said, ‘Man, it’s awesome,’” Bush recounted. But reflecting the agony that was in his letter.” He’d seen Domerese a few days before and asked what he thought of the picture. What’s going through the guy’s mind? So the painting turned out kind of harsh - not harsh, like condemning Todd. “And he filled out a questionnaire that mentioned he had night sweats. “It’s very powerful,” Bush said of the letter. The picture is accompanied by a graphic depiction of war written by Domerese himself: The portrait is one of the series’ most disconcerting and also most beautiful - Domerese’s large forehead a swirl of pink and grey, eyes narrowed, face twisted into a grimace. Alvis “Todd” Domerese with his forefinger. “So this one,” the president said, turning to page 115 and tapping the image of Staff Sgt. Spend a little time in the presence of these pictures, and one is overwhelmed by their subjects’ sacrifices, their courage, their strength and, in some cases, their turmoil. Several bear expressions contorted with deep anguish. In many cases, the eyes gazing out from these canvasses are plainly haunted by the horrors of war. If so, it’s impossible to look at these 98 extraordinary images without thinking deeply about the artist who made them: A leader who sent troops off to the battlefield, and who, so many years later, spends his days channeling the damaged but determined warriors who came home. It’s often said that every portrait is in some fundamental sense a self-portrait. “The painting was a joyful experience, and if that’s therapy, that’s therapy.” The painting was a joyful experience, and if that’s therapy, that’s therapy.” It’s the belief in the cause and the people - to the extent that a soul needs to be unburdened. It's not the painting that unburdens my soul. “It’s an interesting question,” Bush said. “I know a lot of guys that use art as part of their therapy process, and I’m guessing that’s exactly why he does it.” I don’t do fucking art.’” Eventually he tried it, though, “and I saw the beauty in art, the ability to say something when words just can’t do it.” Jay Fain, a Army veteran who was wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, agreed. “I was hospitalized in Bethesda, and they introduced me to art therapy,” he recalled. “Based on the paintings that he's done,” suggested Robert Ferrara, an Army veteran, who was wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, “it has to be therapeutic for him.” Michael Rodriguez, who recently designed a fixed-blade knife for the CKRT Forged by War program, said making art had changed his own life. Task & Purpose spoke to several of the veterans depicted in the portraits - all deeply devoted to the former commander-in-chief - who wondered whether his extraordinary painting project might be a form of art therapy: a way of exorcising his own post-traumatic stress or “ moral injury,” a not-uncommon response to the experience of sending service members into combat. They are men and women he got to know during the various wounded warrior events - including the W100K mountain bike ride and the Warrior Open golf competition - that he hosts each year as part of his extensive work on behalf of veterans. armed forces (there is one four-panel mural that includes 26 individual troops), most of whom fought in Iraq and Afghanistan during Bush’s time in office. Entitled “Portraits of Courage,” the paintings depict 98 former members of the U.S. The occasion was the unveiling of his new series of artworks. ![]() Dressed in a brown suit jacket over an olive green Under Armour shirt, he was genial and warm, with a disarming sense of humor and a lightness of spirit suggesting retirement was definitely agreeing with him. The former chief executive spoke with Task & Purpose on Tuesday in his sunlit office in the George W. ![]() ![]() And there may be no better refutation of Churchill’s airy claim than the intriguing career path of president-turned-painter George W. But the principle is the same.”Īctually, no, it isn’t. “Painting a picture is like fighting a battle,” Winston Churchill once wrote, in what may be the dumbest statement ever attributed to the man who helped lead the Allies to victory in the Second World War and is otherwise rightly celebrated for his soaring rhetoric. ![]()
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