Military says that at this enemy has decided to keep fighting. You can watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. [applause] good evening everyone. My name is john heubusch. I have the honor of the executive director of the Ronald Reagan president ial foundation and needs to do. I want to thank you all for joining us this evening. In honor of our men and women who defend our freedom around the world in uniform, would you please stand and join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Please be seated. [applause] thank you so very much. On that note there are a few other people that i would like to recognize in the audience this evening. Ill start our board of trustees, president bushs ambassador of court of st. James, bob and his wife maria. [applause] hes an extraordinary supporter of the bush family, brad freeman. [applause] one of our newer but remarkable trustees, mr. Ben sutton. [applause] from the reagan family, michael and tamron. [applause] state assemblyman, dante acostas. [applause] just a few more, a former com congressman and his wife janice. [applause] owl on all of our elected officials. [applause] president bushs secretary of treasury, rosario. [applause] and lastly, retired u. S. Army gary and his wife mari. [applause] i would be remiss if i didnt mention that gary became paralyzed from the waist down when a helicopter crashed while conducting operations in iraq in 2008. Let thanks for the generosity and the Infinite Hero Foundation , he can now walk through the assistance of an exoskeleton. [applause] if youd like to know what an exoskeleton is, gary will be at the Reagan Library tomorrow night for an event here to share his story. We invite all of you to come back at the same time tomorrow for what will be an inspirational invite. Thanks for coming gary. [applause] to begin our conversation with our special guest this evening, is another another of our foundations trustees, mr. Fred ryan. Brad has served, i better have a plot line than that. He has served at the Reagan Foundation for 22 years. Prior to his chairmanship, he started at the reagan lighthouse from 1982 to 1989. After that he served as president reagans first post white house chief of staff. I know of no other person who has spent more time and effort working on behalf of ronald and nancy reagan over the years than fred ryan. Fred would never brag about that fact but it is a fact so i will brag for him. Ladies and gentlemen if you would please join me in welcoming to the state, mr. Fred ryan. [applause] thank you, john. That was a kind introduction. Our special guest has been to the reagan president ial library several times, the first was as an owner of a majorleague baseball team, then as governor of texas, he was back as a candidate for president of United States, back as president of the United States to dedicate air force one at the Reagan Library, been here as a former president of the United States and is the author of a popular book decision points. Tonight hes back is an accomplished painter. We can only wonder what hell be on his next visit to the Reagan Library [as americans we closely observe what our president s do when they leave the white house. After serving in the most powerful demanding job on the planet, they certainly deserve to spend time doing things what theyd like to do in the president ial years that they enjoy and want to the most. Some take on bold new challenges and exciting adventures after leaving office. Like one of my favorite favorite president s, became a skydiver. Until his wife but a stop to it but like our special guest tonight, there had been a few artists among our former president s including ulysses s grant, Dwight Eisenhower and jimmy carter. To our knowledge no president has ever attempted portraiture. Our 43rd president ventured bravely into that territory because he was so moved by the sacrifices of our wounded american warriors and began the challenge to capture and immortalizing their courage on canvas. I have to say, i look at president bushs collection of portraits in awe. Not only because of his talent and skill, but because of his subject matter. How he finds a way to take their strength and their dignity and their perseverance and their patriotism and lifted up her all of us to see any deep and intimate way. These paintings, fill the evidence of a warriors. And hopefully this work gives us a better understanding of the issues facing these heroic veterans. In this new book, portraits of courage president bush paints a story of more than 60 brave souls and in the book he states his goal, to honor our men and women in uniform, to highlight family members and caregivers bear the burden of their sacrifice, to encourage encourage those who may be struggling to get the help they need and to help americans support our veterans and empower them to succeed. After reading the book, theres no question that the president has achieved those noble goals. In doing so, i believe, believe, hes revealed a bit of himself as well. Oscar wilde wrote, every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, it is rather the painter on the color canvas reveals himself. Now it is my great honor to introduce that through his paintings has further revealed his depth of passion and character, the 43rd president george w. Bush. [applause] thank you, mr. President. Thank you, brad, sit down. Thank you all, please. [applause] your eating into airtime. [laughmac] thanks for your kind remarks. Thanks for inviting me back and i also want to thank john, the trustees, michael, good to see you again and my buddy brian who will talk about in a little bit. I painted him. I asked his mother what she thought of the painting and i always thought he had a face only a mother could love. [laughmac] she liked it. This is a huge relief. Elton, good to see you again. Anyway, ready to roll. We have a full house and were streaming is online and on television and there been a number of questions submitted about the book, about about your painting and a few other subjects. Will try to get through as many as we can. The book is now available, portraits of courage its already a top seller on amazon or if you go to the bush center directly at bush center. Org the book is available straight from the stores. I saw that theres a special deluxe edition personally signed by the president and all the proceeds will go to the veterans [applause] mr. President , the first thing Everyone Wants to know is when did you start painting . Well, i was an art agnostic for martha my life. [laughmac] it was a terrible admission to make. I get back from washington and i wrote a book and another book and im trying to stay fit, working a lot of the bush center in dallas but it wasnt enough. You have to understand, when youre of president you go 100 miles an miles an hour and then the next day its zero. I had this anxiousness to keep moving and to learn something. I read Winston Churchills painting as a pastime, im a big admirer of churchill, the great great leader and he took up painting. This essay is worth reading. I basically said, what the the hell, if he can paint, i can paint. I told that to laura and she said, yeah sure. [laughmac] i hired an instructor, gail and she came over to the house and she said, whats your objective, i said gail theres a rembrandt trapped in this body. [laughmac] so she came back realizing i was serious and i painted a cube. Then i painted a watermelon. It was a liberating experience. Not only was it liberating but it was an unbelievable learning experience. Ive been painting ever since for about five years. The first question we have is from tina, she asks, did you have a history of painting as a child earlier in your life and did your mom keep any of the School Paintings on there for dinner chris mark. Im sure i was a finger pain or but no. Tina, i just wasnt all that interested in art and now i am. So it goes to show that you can teach an old dog new tricks its interesting, when you get to be our age. [laughmac] , 70 and youre sitting around with your pals theres only two topics of conversation. What medicines are you taking . And how your grandkids . My buddies say youve got a passion for painting. I say you should try it. They say they campaign but i said the same thing five years ago. Im living proof to tell you that you dont know what you can do until you try it. My call for aging baby boomers, try it out. Run to the finish line. Painting has enabled me to do that. What medicines are you taking . [laughmac] the grandkids are great. Very strong, fred. I didnt think you had it in you left. Trying my best. Next question, from janet she said, you started painting farm animals and World Leaders, when did you decide to paint Wounded Warriors . Who was the first and why . What happened was my mother. She can be quite plainspoken. She heard i was pointing and said i cant paint. [laughmac] by the way, this is the woman that said when i was gonna run again in 1993 said you cant win. And i said i damn sure cant paint. So she said, paint my dogs. So i became a pet portrait painter for a period of time. I painted bob the cat and bernie the cat and barney and so, then an instructor in dallas that smack one of the greatest things in instructor can do is to set new horizons for new students. My instructor said you should paint the portrait of World Leaders. Im sitting there is a fledgling artist saying this guy thanks i can actually do that chris mark and i did it. I have two instructors now and one of them was at the house. You ought to paint the portrait of portraits no one knows and it dawned on me that i ought to paint these warriors who i do know. At the bush center we have mike and bound rides, golf tournaments with these wounded vets and, brian is a biker and i got to know brian and i started studying those stories. The first person i painted was major turner, and im sitting next to him in a dinner and asked him why he was here . He said i cant get out of my mind seen one of my buddies killed. I paint from pictures, photos and as im painting turner, im thinking what must that be like in his mind. He writes me a letter later and hes much more comfortable talking about the invisible wounds of war. Theres a huge stigma, brian will tell you. They dont want to talk about it. They think people wont understand me, i wont get promoted, ill never get hired so they keep it inside which often times leads to selfmedication. Turner writes me a letter standing that writing this letter help to share his story more and more. Step one, is seeking seeking help. So i repainted turner. I painted the same portrait again and i was trying to show people how one can improve when you deal with the stigma and seek help. I was hoping to show people that i improved as a painter as well. [laughmac] the next question from isabella follows up on what you are saying, what is the process for painting one of your portraits . Today said in the studio or did do they get to see and approve it . Have you ever had an unhappy subject. Yeah, my wife. [laughmac] i painted boro one time. I thought it was a pretty good painting. At first it was too anguished and finally i said forget it. I did paint my mother for her 90th birthday and it was a painting of her walking her two dogs on the beach in maine but in order to deal with the angst of laura, i painted mom from the back. [laughmac] i do paint from photos. The only person i painted live is me. One of my instructors convinced me to paint myself from looking in the mirror. Its a grim looking expression on the face because its hard to paint and smile while youre looking in a mirror. No, i didnt run it by the vets. I was just hoping beyond all hope that they liked it. I was nervous about some of them. I wasnt nervous about brian. Some of them todd wrote of the letter about it was like to be in the war and when i was painting todd he told us he had night sweats. I was thinking about what its like to have night sweats. If the dark painting, in a sense. I thought todd in tampa, two days ago, and said said let me show you a painting. Man, thats really good. Todd, im no longer the commanderinchief. [laughmac] you could tell me the truth. He liked it. It was a great relief for me. He liked it because i captured the anguish he felt, but he doesnt feel it anymore. I wish i could repainted but the books out. [laughmac] the question from meredith is which of your Wounded Warrior painting was the hardest paint . Theyre all tough. Every one of these men and women have physical wounds and some of them have, all of them have in one way or other, pts medic brain injury. When you think about that its hard to do. On the other hand, i have such great pride in knowing them. Im a baby boomer which means vietnam war. When there was a draft and the war, people didnt understand it and when the vets came home they were treated despicably. We get attacked and i made it abundantly clear that were going to defend the country and millions volunteered totally different attitude, being able to salute people who volunteered in the face of danger was a high all honor. Oftentimes, i thought about the integrity and courage of those who are willing to volunteer to wear the uniform. And painting them, i had a lot of pride. I guess the toughest was me and Melissa Stockwell dancing. Melissa is a first lieutenant, the first woman to lose her leg in combat. When they are on metal at the paralympics in rio at the triathlon. She said lets dance, i said i dont want to dance. Im not a very good dancer. She convinced me to dance and so i painted melissa. The hard part was me, the easy part with her. Most the time i look like alfred e neuman. [laughmac] remember him . He iran for president. Mr. President caroline from maryland asks, when do you do your paintings . Who cleans up after you . And how long does it take you to do a portrait portrait from start to finish . I paint upstairs at our house, i built a studio and so ive got places where i can retreat to. I clean up, most of the time. [laughmac] laura is a neat nick and oil painting not meet. I limit my palate to two yellows, to read, to blues and blues and two white. It teaches you to limit colors. If you get a deck on your finger and happen to not get it cleaned and you lie down on the wet white bedspread. [laughmac] blue. I try im not a very good cleaner. It me a year to paint the 98 portraits. A painting is really never done. I look at some of these portraits and say i wish i could put them back on the easel and keep painting but at some. You have to call it quits. I live with these portraits for a year, some more complete than others and i look at brian and i think i better touch him up a little more. If the never ending process. I cant answer that question. Michael in greenwich asked, have you ever been unhappy with one of your paintings and tossed site . All the time. A lot of times ill paint in get in bed and think about it and hustle upstairs and scrape it off. Thats the great thing about oil paintings. You can paint, scrape, paint, scrape. I tried acrylics but it dry so fast that theres no scraping. [laughmac] all the time. The good thing about oil is to keep painting over it until you got it where youre comfortable there some questions beyond the painting and more of those to come back to, heres, heres a question from betty in washington dc, and a time when someone call uncertainty, what can you tell the Younger Generation of our country to do to renew the sense of belief and optimism that Ronald Reagan embodied . Read history. I remember somebody telling me right after 911, youve had the toughest presidency. What about Abraham Lincoln . In the country was at war with each other. I talked about a period of time, 50 years later it was a tough. What you have to understand is that the nation goes through tough times. Theres something unique about us. We have a spirit that cant be extinguished and thats why im so optimistic about the future of the country and one reason im optimistic think about this, millions wore the uniforms and have ptsd at a young age in life. The fundamental question is can we help them transition . They are the leaders of the future thats what this project is about, helping people take the skills that they learned in the military and transitioning them to bring those skills into civilian life. Theres a real challenge, theres 1 million to military civilian divide, a lot of that has to do with language. They have to apply for a job, Vice President of human relations asks whats your skill set . Sniper. [laughmac] i dont think we need one this year. [laughmac] but if the person had said im discipline, i work hard, team player, believe in personal responsibility and i could take pressure, all of a sudden the civilian takes a different look. The challenges to as a society to understand how the military thanks and how the military understands our civilian things. A lot of work has been done, by the way. Im optimistic kids have to understand the history of the country. Youll see. Theres a resiliency to it. It should make people optimistic. My concern is that the rhetoric and politics get so out of hand these days that good people say i dont want to get involved in politics but its been that way. They called Abraham Lincoln and ape. This is not the first time theres been namecalling in politics. I might have been called names at one time. [laughmac] kathy be back kathy into cargo rights, we were so glad to see your dad make it to the super bowl for the coin toss after leaving the hospital. [applause] how is he doing and how is your mom . Theyre both great, given their limitations. Dad cant walk, he confined to a wheelchair but his spirit is joyful. I went to see dad three years ago, in the icy you unit in houston and if youve ever been to an icu unit its not real warm. I said to dad my library is opening. Sir want you there and his voice is incredibly weak and he says, ill be there son. I left tearful thinking probably not, and and sure enough when we opened up the library the most important thing and its nice to have the great weather and a lot of friends and former president but dad was on the stage. Flipping the coin reminded me of him being there for the library opening. This guy has a huge desire to live. Ive often thought about, wrote a book about h