What Hunter Biden Actually Does For A Living

Poor Hunter Biden. Everybody's got family issues, and how many of us can relate to being a younger sibling who can never seem to get out of the long shadow cast by an older one? Plus he's also got that whole tragic backstory to deal with, not to mention having his addiction problems, less-than-distinguished military record, and complicated personal life becoming fodder for public debate. Having his dad's political rival (who also happens to be the current POTUS) trying to sic an entire former Iron Curtain country on him had to have been tough to deal with, too.

It's little wonder, then, that Hunter, now happily remarried, has chosen to leave his career as a political lobbyist to focus on his true passion, which is something few would have expected. According to The New York Times, Hunter now works out of his Hollywood studio where the walls are lined with abstract ink paintings he's created himself. Lobbyist to celebrity scapegoat to artist, who could have imagined?

Hunter told the Times that painting is something that "is literally keeping me sane." While he never went to art school, he says he's been sketching since he was seven years old, and that his art "is something I've taken seriously for a long time but hasn't necessarily been for public consumption." Now, however, he finally says he feels comfortable in calling himself an artist, and last year he started working with an artist's agent to try to line up gallery exhibits.

As to how the art world is receiving him, ArtNet News says the response has been...well, mixed. New York magazine critic Jerry Saltz described Hunter's work as "Generic Post Zombie Formalism illustration," while art critic Scott Indrisek said "Hunter's paintings have a kind of vaguely scientific, vaguely psychedelic vibe," yet compared them to "art [made] for dermatologists' waiting rooms." Artnet News' in-house critic Ben Davis called Hunter's images "pleasing," though lacking in style or theme, but he does bring up what may be the most important part of recovering addict Hunter's new career, saying the paintings seem to be trying "to make some structure out of a mess—so pretty allegorical in terms of where he finds himself." Well, whatever the critics may think, we wish Hunter all the best in his new career — and just think, we may get to see one of his works hanging in the White House someday!