Leonardo DiChimpy
Saturday, April 27th, 2013
Love it or loathe it, people want to know more about the origins of Chimpy’s new found passion for crayons, er, painting. NPR caught up with Pickles McStagger and she gave us this insightful look into the genesis of his new phase of life.
David Greene: Your husband has kept a pretty low profile since leaving office. But one thing that’s gotten some attention recently is his new hobby, painting. How did that come about?
Pickles: He was looking for a pastime. He got an app on his iPad where he could draw pictures. He communicated with me if I was on the road and with Barbara and Jenna with funny drawings.
David Greene: He was drawing you pictures to send you while you were on the road?
Pickles: Yeah, like he’d draw a picture of him in bed with Barney and the cat.
David Greene: Did you see a burgeoning artist or did you think he needed some work?
Pickles: Well, we did think they were pretty good. We thought they had a lot of personality and a lot of action. Then, he was looking for something to do and he chatted with John Lewis Gaddis who’s a presidential historian and he said ‘Why don’t you read Churchill’s book ‘Painting as a Pastime’? So he works at painting and paints for a few hours everyday.
I can hardly wait until he hits his Walter Keane phase.
(ArtFCity)
