Week 10

                                     Amy Sherald on Making Breonna Taylor’s Portrait

"Painting Taylor, a person she had never met, who would never be able to sit for her, presented a unique challenge."

I think that showing the issue and problems having to be dealt with in the art piece makes the piece even greater in value, showing how going through these challenges makes you a great artist and makes the piece even better.

"Sherald found a young woman with similar physical attributes, studied Taylor’s hairstyles and fashion choices, and drew inspiration from things she learned about the young woman"

I also like how these pieces of personal information can be used as a tool to tell a story within the painting and create a deeper connection within the art piece itself.

The Amy Sherald Effect

Sherald riffs on the extravagance of the spectacle while deferring—as just another beholder, another citizen—to the integrity of the mien.

This shows how Sherald is a spectacular artist and has a great process of making art appear just like another person with the tools given that everyone else has access to.

She activates the double function of portraiture as the recognition of a worldly identity and, in the best instances, the surprise of an evident inner life.

I also think that Sheralds work as captures the best moments and instances in life and she has the ability to really focalize these moments to everyone

Kehinde Wiley on Painting Masculinity and Blackness, from President Obama to the People of Ferguson

"So, as opposed to running from that, I think as an artist in the twenty-first century your job is to fold that understanding into your intentions, using it really as another color on your palette."

I like how Wiley really likes to take these challenges hands-on and not run away from challenges that others may shy away from.

"We’re living in a time where there are, for a number of reasons, more and more artists of color being celebrated and welcomed into the community of thinkers."

I like how Wiley embraces his culture and brings it to his art. I think it is very inspirational to others and shows how to embrace yourself and who you are as a person and bring it into its art.