Do you like terrible art? Terrible art made by war criminals? And paraphernalia thereof?!?

Well, you’re in luck! An anonymous prankster at Society6 has been hawking prints, canvases, tote bags, throw pillows and wall clocks featuring the creepily naïve paintings of George W. Bush! You have your choice of Tony Blair, Vladimir Putin, Hamid Karzai, or if you’re feeling Freudian, daddy George Bush! All proceeds after production go to War Child International, a nonprofit describing itself as a family of independent humanitarian “organisations which work together to help children and young people affected by armed conflict.” How apropos!

The folks over at Animal NYC checked on the ethics/legal end of the copyright issues with their expert, Greg Allen, who described the stunt as, “kind of a dick move, supposedly by someone without the guts to come forward and claim their bad boy gesture.” He’s of the opinion that the merch is “purely a slow-off-the-line publicity stunt by Society6, which is the merchandising subsidiary of online content mill Demand Media. And it’s a dick move whenever a corporation rips off the creative output of an artist, especially an emerging artist. Even if he happens to be a war criminal.”

I have no such qualms with this kind of “theft”! For all I care, you can go steal the garden gnomes off of George W. Bush’s lawn—assuming, of course, you could manage to not get shot in the process. You can say that you’re “liberating” them!  At the same time, I’m sure Allen is right, and this is just a gesture from Society6—unless you really like owning ugly conversation pieces, you’re better off just donating your cash or time to antiwar groups or foreign aid. Remember folks, having ugly throw pillows doesn’t fight the power!
 

 

 

 
Via Animal