F364262 02: A skull hangs on the wall of an adobe structure at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. February 9, 2000. The ranch, summer home of preeminent American Painter Georgia O''Keeffe. Ghost Ranch is where O''Keeffe would explore the beautiful and mysterious New Mexico landscape later transform her discoveries into masterpeices of American Art. (Photo by Joe Raedle)

George W. Bush's art appears to have taken a dark turn lately.

Dubya has moved on from his usual fare of awkward self portraits and cute animal pictures to a new subject: skulls.

At least, that's what he and his wife told Maureen Dowd at Nelson Mandela's funeral service.

It seems that, in the wake of his hospitalization in August due to a blocked artery, the 43rd president is using his creative outlet to reflect on mortality.

"He said that since his heart surgery, he was spending a lot of time painting skulls," Dowd writes in The Times. "Animal skulls, Laura quickly interjected."

When Bush first took up painting lessons, he reportedly told his instructor, "There's a Rembrandt trapped in this body. Your job is to find it."