My mother was willing to support art as a summer program for me. She never supported it as a career decision until I won the National Gallery Portrait Competition. Amy Sherald More Quotes by Amy Sherald More Quotes From Amy Sherald In sociology, they call it 'code switching.' I can feel just as comfortable in a room full of people who don't look like me because I understand the social cues of class and race. Amy Sherald feel look me people Why can't I make up my own characters and paint the people I want to see in the world? I'm depicting the many people who existed in history but whose presence was never documented. Amy Sherald my-own history people world I want my portraits to create a space where blackness can breathe. Amy Sherald create breathe space want Imagination allows you to bend the rules of the temporal world. Amy Sherald rules you imagination world I'm painting the paintings that I want to see in museums. And I'm hopefully presenting them in a way that's universal enough that they become representative of something different than just a black body on a canvas. Amy Sherald painting black body way Success, for me, is staying true to who you are and not deviating off a path. Amy Sherald me you path success My father wanted me to be a dentist like him, or any doctor, really. There was this attitude of, 'The civil rights movement was not about you being an artist.' Amy Sherald me you attitude father Art was not a thing for my family and is still not a thing for my family. My family will not go to a museum unless I say we have to go there. That's why I really feel like it was something I was supposed to do because there was no directive that pushed me in that direction. Amy Sherald feel me family art When I started school, I would draw pictures at the end of my sentences: a house, a flower, a tree, a bird. Whatever was in the sentence, I'd draw it. Amy Sherald flower tree bird school It's hard for me to find people to paint. There has got to be something about them that only I can see. Amy Sherald see me i-can people Signing autographs is weird. I'm an introvert, so it's been a strain in that way. Amy Sherald weird been introvert way When I found photography, I found this other kind of portraiture of black families and black people who were photographing themselves or having themselves photographed in ways they wanted to be seen. Amy Sherald who black photography people Becoming an artist is not empirical; it's not about hard work. You have to put the work in, but that doesn't mean you're going to make it. Amy Sherald you hard-work artist work Michelle Obama is extraordinary, but she is also the kind of woman that exists in a way that is - she's a hundred percent relatable to all kinds of people, all genders all around the world. Amy Sherald woman people way world I thought I was going to die when I was 39. Amy Sherald going die thought The one artist who actually had influence over me was Bo Bartlett. Amy Sherald over me influence artist Art class was my safe haven. Amy Sherald haven safe class art I've forgotten a lot of things. I've forgotten how to play the piano and how to speak Arabic, though I studied it for two years. Amy Sherald how things speak play I blacked out in a Rite Aid. The doctor told me my heart function was at 5 percent. I spent two months in the hospital waiting to have a transplant. For me, that was the end of the world. Amy Sherald doctor me waiting heart I paint paintings of people. Amy Sherald paintings paint people
