Yes, I'd say that was unusual.

July 29, 2009 8:28 AM

Paintings of President Obama, Naked with Unicorns (SFW)
posted by empath (63 comments total)

Unusual Paintings of Obama Naked with Unicorns

They obviously stole the idea from my Entirely Conventional Paintings of Obama Naked with Unicorns site.
posted by Afroblanco at 8:30 AM on July 29, 2009 [15 favorites]

Obama, Stalin and House naked on unicorns would make a great movie.
posted by etc. at 8:30 AM on July 29, 2009 [6 favorites]

I think we need to give titles to some of these paintings.
posted by empath at 8:31 AM on July 29, 2009

Does Brandon Bird know about this?
posted by munchingzombie at 8:31 AM on July 29, 2009

NSFYSAGT!

Not Safe For Your Sanity And Good Taste,
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:35 AM on July 29, 2009

no, Brandon BIRD
posted by empath at 8:36 AM on July 29, 2009

no, Brandon BIRD

Everybody knows that the BIRD is the word
posted by litleozy at 8:42 AM on July 29, 2009

Those are funny pictures and all.

But the "people think Obama is incredibly awesome and that he's going to do great stuff as president to an abusrd degree" meme seems like a thousand years ago now. It's hard to even remember why stuff like this was funny once.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:42 AM on July 29, 2009

Someone had to do it.
posted by pracowity at 8:45 AM on July 29, 2009

Sometimes artists are struck by a moment in the zeitgeist, and drop everything to tap into it, to milk it, to plumb its murky depths and make it real on canvas.

Sometimes artists spend the rest of their careers regretting it.
posted by fatbird at 8:45 AM on July 29, 2009 [3 favorites]

Um, is that House in the fourth painting down?

wtf.
posted by scrutiny at 8:46 AM on July 29, 2009 [7 favorites]

Some of the weirder paintings you will ever see in your lifetime

Oh, I doubt that. These paintings seem a little contrived. Genuine weird paintings come at you with a sense of what-the-fuckedness that has nothing to do with an internet meme, and everything to do with yanking you out of your everyday frame. This stuff just looks like it was meant to be sold.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 8:48 AM on July 29, 2009 [2 favorites]

This will be my 2000th comment on MetaFilter and I couldn't think of a more appropriate post to put it it.

Obama naked with unicorns, people!
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 8:49 AM on July 29, 2009

Related.
posted by pb at 8:51 AM on July 29, 2009

Miracle on the Hudson. There sure are a lot of geese in those engines.
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 8:54 AM on July 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh, wow.

This has a lot more WTF power if you recognize the author from his previous work: "Faithmouse", a right-wing radical Christian strip. Holy shit, a unicorn rubbing oil onto Obama's back. Clearly this man has had things in his brain turn completely around since his Faithmouse days!
posted by egypturnash at 9:00 AM on July 29, 2009

His blog.
posted by empath at 9:03 AM on July 29, 2009

Wow, naked obama looks just like Derek Jeter.
posted by jenkinsEar at 9:08 AM on July 29, 2009

Someone needs to get a donation fund together to pay for this one to be plastered on billboards across the country.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:10 AM on July 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm curious now kuujjuarapik - show me some weirder stuff.
posted by Bageena at 9:13 AM on July 29, 2009

Old news. MetaFilter's been shouting "The emperor has no clothes!" for several months, now.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:17 AM on July 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Um, is that House in the fourth painting down?

Oh, right. That's where it just got silly.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 9:19 AM on July 29, 2009

Miracle on the Hudson. There sure are a lot of geese in those engines.

There... *dab, dab, dab* a happy little goose.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:22 AM on July 29, 2009 [5 favorites]

I do believe that this is exactly what I was promised in the election.

I also believe that I would enjoy this more were I actually on acid, not just feeling like I surely must be on acid.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:27 AM on July 29, 2009 [2 favorites]

Wheres the painting of Obama jumping the shark?
posted by ElmerFishpaw at 9:28 AM on July 29, 2009

"You are not Ugly Betty" is probably the funniest one. She's bursting into tears.

And whoever's white ass is in the 8th one (I can't guess), it is quite disturbing.
posted by Askiba at 9:28 AM on July 29, 2009

Umm...(Desperately tries to look at bright side) ...at least now we have a president and first lady who look good naked?

...I got nothin'.
posted by happyroach at 9:30 AM on July 29, 2009

I think the symbolism is great. Naked Obama on his Unicorn standing between Stalin-with-pills and Greg House, MD. It's all about health care reform!

After looking at the guys blog for a bit, I'm convinced that the artist is sarcastic and cynical and that none of these are friendly paintings about Obama. I think the Unicorn, which originated before the election last year, is being used in ugly ways here.
posted by hippybear at 9:30 AM on July 29, 2009

Wheres the painting of Obama jumping the shark?

There's a naked First Lady doing something with a dolphin... is that close enough?
posted by zarq at 9:31 AM on July 29, 2009

After looking at the guys blog for a bit, I'm convinced that the artist is sarcastic and cynical and that none of these are friendly paintings about Obama. I think the Unicorn, which originated before the election last year, is being used in ugly ways here.

Yeah, he's a right-wing fundie. The symbolism mocks the "messiah mythos."
posted by zarq at 9:33 AM on July 29, 2009

This might be awesome if I was on shrooms every time I looked at it.
posted by futureisunwritten at 9:34 AM on July 29, 2009

This isn't entirely unexpected.

As noted above, this undoubtedly-talented artist previously drew a hard-core Catholic comic strip called Faithmouse, which was so off-kilter that, like a great many others, I was fairly addicted for some years.

Widely circulated around the conservative blogosphere, Dan Lacey's strip starred a variety of cartoon animals, including Faithmouse - apparently modeled after Lacey's devout, diminuative real-life wife - the sadly misled Gaybear, an angelic fetus named Neverborn, and as I recall it, a startlingly butch mole as the main villainess. They would rattle around in blunt-edged morality plays that would feature cameos from everyone from George Bush to Pope Benedict.

It was all standard values-voters fare - anti-gay, anti-abortion stuff - except for one significant fact: once every so often, the characters would get naked. You'd be cruising through cartoon peans to Dick Cheney and then suddenly you'd be staring at cartoon mouse tits. He would go from railing against the far-left, pro-death, anti-god homosexual agenda, and then suddenly make an unscheduled foray into furry porn, usually worked into pious storylines about self-image, abortion, and - near the end - sexual harassment.

Lacey was a regular on the SomethingAwful forums, in the manner of the poor kid who turns up at the cool kids' party knowing he's going to be ridiculed mercilessly, just for the sake of being acknowledged. From time to time, he would post messages on his blog claiming financial difficulties, and talking about how hard it was to live in Minnesota on the proceeds of a comic about mostly-clothed fundamentalist animals. Eventually, he started painting animals with pancakes on their heads and selling them online. Naked Obama could not have been far behind.
posted by bicyclefish at 9:41 AM on July 29, 2009 [3 favorites]

very classy...now for the painter's sister, naked with a horny unicorn.
posted by Postroad at 9:43 AM on July 29, 2009

That's so weird. I thought the paintings were so great when I thought the artist was just a run of the mill whack-job, but now that I found out that he's a right-wing fundie I have to hate them.
posted by digsrus at 9:44 AM on July 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

This has a lot more WTF power if you recognize the author from his previous work: "Faithmouse", a right-wing radical Christian strip. Holy shit, a unicorn rubbing oil onto Obama's back. Clearly this man has had things in his brain turn completely around since his Faithmouse days!

Well.....

He posted sketches of his Faithmouse characters nude on the Something Awful forums a couple of years ago, prompting a bit of an uproar. A year later, he posted this by way of explanation:

I think the cartoon has always been explicit; I just kept the sexual innuendoes buried because I was hoping to see Faithmouse syndicated one day. Now that I realize that won't happen it doesn't matter.

All the characters have sexual motivation, which I think is honest. If you consider the issues of greatest concern to Christian conservatives and Catholics, you come right up to the fact that sex is at the heart of all of these issues, and then the conversation can't proceed further.

As I posted recently on POE-

a few statements I believe are true-

God is real, and God is love.

God is the creator of procreation, desire, and eros.

God wants us to be happy.

I like to draw naked mice.

Drawing naked mice makes me happy.

And apparently, so does painting naked Obamas.
posted by zarq at 9:46 AM on July 29, 2009

I'm partial to this masterpiece myself.
posted by waitangi at 9:56 AM on July 29, 2009 [4 favorites]

There is a striking lack of bacon in these memepaintings. Otherwise they are perfect.
posted by chairface at 9:59 AM on July 29, 2009

He used to hang out on the Portal of Evil, too (it's NSFW and I don't remember the address so I won't link it). I believe it was their particular obsession with Oolong, the bunny who balanced things on its head (including pancakes), that lead to his pancakes-on-head drawings, but I guess I'll never know for sure because I was never really into SA.
posted by kathrineg at 10:21 AM on July 29, 2009

I like to draw naked mice.

Drawing naked mice makes me happy.


I motion to add the "batshitinsane" tag.
posted by hellojed at 10:24 AM on July 29, 2009

@Askiba, that's Rush Limbaugh. I'm surprised someone doesn't recognize that ass.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 10:27 AM on July 29, 2009 [3 favorites]

Gosh, no wonder his polls are tanking.
posted by Danf at 10:30 AM on July 29, 2009

But the "people think Obama is incredibly awesome and that he's going to do great stuff as president to an abusrd degree" meme seems like a thousand years ago now. It's hard to even remember why stuff like this was funny once.

Six months ago was "once"? Wow, I really must be getting old. Gotta break out the walker .....
posted by blucevalo at 10:31 AM on July 29, 2009

Ya'know, some presidents get their heads carved on the side of a mountain.
posted by poe at 10:31 AM on July 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Not messianic enough to carry the sarcasm schtick. Just kinda gay. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)
posted by jamstigator at 11:06 AM on July 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Drawing naked mice makes me happy.

I would laugh at this if it were not for the fact that there seems to be a large and vibrant conservative-Republican furry underground.

Where these people come from and get their impulses, I have no idea.
posted by Avenger at 11:07 AM on July 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

Exactly what it says on the tin.
posted by Evilspork at 11:11 AM on July 29, 2009

HE'S TKAING OUR HARD EARNED MONEY AND GIVING IT TO FANTSY CREATURES!!!
posted by orme at 11:11 AM on July 29, 2009 [2 favorites]

I searched high and low for the expected via bOINGbOING comment. Paging Mr. Doctorow...
posted by Avelwood at 11:14 AM on July 29, 2009

Yeah but are they good unicorns or evil unicorns? Cold war unicorns? Or my favorite, avenging unicorns.
posted by w0mbat at 11:17 AM on July 29, 2009

Needs more Busey.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 11:20 AM on July 29, 2009

Needs a little Palin figure hanging out of the side of a chopper with an AR-15 up to her rouged cheek.
posted by longbaugh at 11:33 AM on July 29, 2009

Does anyone have a comment on the symbolism of pancake-on-the-head? Does it connote approval, disapproval, or a colder climate with corresponding need for head covering?

I've seen a painting of Mrs. Obama with one coif-pancake, while there's one of Sarah Palin with a stack of three.
posted by amtho at 11:43 AM on July 29, 2009

Does anyone have a comment on the symbolism of pancake-on-the-head?

I have no idea what you're talking about, so here's a picture of Michelle Obama with a pancake on her head

RIP Oolong
posted by kathrineg at 11:58 AM on July 29, 2009

jenkinsEar: Wow, naked obama looks just like Derek Jeter.

Having never seen Derek Jeter naked, I'll bow to your greater expertise.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:45 PM on July 29, 2009

Yep, SFW. Unless you work in the White House, or anywhere within punching distance of Rush Limbaugh.
posted by Effigy2000 at 1:56 PM on July 29, 2009

They're certainly not Joe Coleman weird/fun.
posted by Ron Thanagar at 2:06 PM on July 29, 2009

You are not ugly betty
posted by Mister Moofoo at 4:53 PM on July 29, 2009

Ambiguous fun:
You are not ugly, Betty.

vs.

You are not Ugly Betty!
posted by Mister Moofoo at 4:54 PM on July 29, 2009

Gosh, no wonder his polls are tanking.

I know, totally, the longer these wait to be publicized, the worse things will get!
posted by Pollomacho at 5:24 PM on July 29, 2009

WHAT THE FUCK I SAID NARWHALS NOT UNICORNS
posted by loquacious at 8:17 PM on July 29, 2009

I notice he sells calendars of these on his site. Because you need a new Naked Obama with a Unicorn every month at the absolute least.
posted by Sparx at 12:00 AM on July 30, 2009

Powerful... and quiet.
posted by magic curl at 1:54 AM on July 30, 2009

in the manner of the poor kid who turns up at the cool kids' party knowing he's going to be ridiculed mercilessly, just for the sake of being acknowledged

Outsider art?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:37 AM on July 30, 2009