Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lifted the curtain on his official portrait on Monday, revealing a photograph-like giant image of the onetime bodybuilder standing in front of the official California seal.
Schwarzenegger revealed the portrait at a ceremony in the state Capitol in which he made a rare appearance in Sacramento nearly four years after he left office.
The portrait, which will eventually hang on the third floor, was done by Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, a realist who previously illustrated Andy Warhol and John F. Kennedy.
Schwarzenegger, a movie star before he ran for governor in the chaotic recall election of 2005, said he owes all his successes in life to California, which he called a mythical place "where nothing is impossible." As a boy growing up in Austria, he dreamed about the state, he said.