I have very little to say about the Monica Lewinsky matter, given that I was on the other side at the time, but this is definitely cheeky. I do not say this to disapprove; in fact, I think that it’s hysterical, and one of the things that art is for. But the Clintons never forgive a slight, and this is one heck of one:
Q: Who did you find was the hardest to capture?
[Artist Nelson Shanks] Clinton was hard. I’ll tell you why. The reality is he’s probably the most famous liar of all time. He and his administration did some very good things, of course, but I could never get this Monica thing completely out of my mind and it is subtly incorporated in the painting.
If you look at the left-hand side of it there’s a mantle in the Oval Office and I put a shadow coming into the painting and it does two things. It actually literally represents a shadow from a blue dress that I had on a mannequin, that I had there while I was painting it, but not when he was there. It is also a bit of a metaphor in that it represents a shadow on the office he held, or on him.
…Either Mr. Shanks is even more serenely confident than I am that HRC will not be the next President of the United States, or he simply doesn’t care if he gets audited. I’ll accept either answer. Respect it, too.
Via the Huffington Post, of all places.
Moe Lane