Obama to Portraitist: I’ve Got Enough Political Problems Without You Making Me Look Like Napoleon

EXCERPT:

OBAMA: "Maybe the one area where there were some concessions was, as I said before, Kihende's art often takes ordinary people and elevates them, lifts them up and puts them in these fairly elaborate settings. And so his initial impulse maybe in the work was to also elevate me and put me in these settings with partridges and scepters and thrones and robes and mounting me on horses. And I had to explain that I’ve got enough political problems without you making me look like Napoleon. We have to bring it down just a touch."