A portrait of former President Bill Clinton in a blue dress and red heels titled Parsing Bill has been making the rounds on the Internet recently after it came out that the odd painting had been hanging on a wall inside the home of late controversial figure Jeffrey Epstein.
The portrait reignited rumors about a possible link between Clinton and the death of Epstein, with some implications that the former president might have been involved in his pedophile ring before his suicide.
Petrina Ryan-Kleid, the artist behind the piece, was recently identified and located, and she claims that she had no idea where the painting was hanging after selling it.
Ryan-Kleid explained that she did the piece as part of a series of pictures of Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush that were drawn for her master’s thesis.
The artist said: “In 2012, as a grad student at the New York Academy of Art, I painted pictures of Presidents Clinton and Bush as part of my master’s thesis.”
Ryan-Kleid, a New York-based artist from Australia, went on to reveal: “When the school put on a fundraiser at the Tribeca Ball that year, they sold my painting to one of the attendees. I had no idea who the buyer was at the time. As with most of my paintings, I had completely lost track of this piece when it was sold seven years ago. So it was a complete surprise to me to learn yesterday that it wound up in Epstein’s home.”
So, what message was she trying to convey with this now-viral piece of art? She explained: “Since I’m Australian, I wasn’t then, nor am I now, partisan about American politics. At the time, most of my ideas were fresh from the Daily Show or from Australian cable TV.”
War Games and Parsing Bill are in their essence about,”how opposition parties caricature presidents. Neither painting should be taken literally,” she also revealed.
The painting was a centerpiece in Epstein’s home and was displayed right in the entryway, immediately presented to anyone entering a room in the disgrace financier’s house.
Previous reports from people who had been inside of Epstein’s townhouse before his death seem to confirm this story, with one even managing to take a picture of the painting with a cellphone, noting its ridiculous nature.
How exactly the painting managed to make its way from a master’s thesis to the home of a convicted pedophile remains unknown.
A lot about the case of Epstein will likely stay that way too, given the fact that he took his own life surrounded by mysterious circumstances.
There has been ongoing speculation over his death, fueled by the secretive nature of the investigations into it.
Many have turned the painting into a joke while others are pointing to the fact that Clinton’s legacy has been destroyed.
One person took to social media to say: “Bill Clinton was on this mans private jet without Secret Service protection flying in and out of countries known for pedophiles to frequent…He had a lot of dirt on the Clintons..the oil painting I think Ms. Bill posed for.”
Another commenter had this funny remark: “They could have come up with a better lie on how Epstein “committed suicide, ” Jesus Christ!! My kids lie better than that! 2. Hillary Clinton must have been that young chick in high school that snitched everyone out .. but she got away with things. ? My favorite part of this painting is it G.W. Bush could have painted kind of looks like it?.”
Ryan-Kleid, a self-described private person, now finds herself in the limelight without looking for it.
