Former President George W. Bush admitted he was "annoyed" by hackers who leaked images of his paintings, specifically one of himself in the bathtub he painted to "shock" his art instructor.
Bush's talent for art was first exposed to the world in February 2013, when hackers who gained access to Bush's sister's email account and several others made pictures of the paintings public.
In an interview with his daughter Jenna Bush Hager for NBC's "Today" airing Friday, Bush called the hacking "an invasion of one's privacy."
"Yeah, I was annoyed. And nor do I want my paintings to get out. And I found it very interesting the first painting that came out was the one I painted of myself in the bathtub," Bush said. "I did so because I wanted to kind of shock my instructor."
But Bush is confident his latest work is going to impress people.
Bush discussed a new exhibit opening at his presidential library called "The Art of Leadership," which will feature "more than two dozen never-before-exhibited portraits painted by President Bush," according to a Time report from February. The paintings will likely depict foreign leaders Bush worked with while serving as president, a series the New York Times reported he was working on in November 2013.
When Hager asked what the reactions will be to the paintings, Bush predicted he'd surprise people with his talent.
"I think they're going to be, 'wow, George Bush is a painter,'" Bush said. "I mean I'm sure when they heard that I was painting them, if they had, they're going to say, 'well, I look forward to seeing the stick figure he painted.'"
Bush said he hopes the leaders take the paintings "in the spirit of friendship," saying he was "willing to give it a shot, in terms of getting people to see how I felt about them."
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