After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, L. Paul Bremer took over the surely unpleasant task of heading the Coalition Provisional Authority (remember the “coalition”?). Some critics blamed him for the billions of reconstruction dollars that went unaccounted for under his watch. But that’s not what NPR’s “Day to Day” interviewed him about on today’s show. Instead, host Madeleine Brand asked him about his painting. As in,  realistic landscapes executed primarily in Vermont, where Bremer lives part-time. The homepage of his website features what he considers his best painting so far: a quintessential red barn in Cavendish. Though still an amateur, Bremer does sell his work. He says he donates proceeds from sales to nonprofit historical societies in Vermont. You can see his paintings here.

This article appears in The Animal Issue 2009.

Pamela Polston is a contributing arts and culture writer and editor. She cofounded Seven Days in 1995 with Paula Routly and served as arts editor, associate publisher and writer. Her distinctive arts journalism earned numerous awards from the Vermont Press Association, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and the New England Newspaper & Press Association. Pamela was inducted into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2015. In 2021, the Vermont Arts Council presented her with the Walter Cerf...