Today MSNBC covered the unveiling of the portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery.
When Michelle spoke I felt tears welling up in my chest the way they do before they hit your tear ducts.
"I am humbled, I am honored, I am proud but most of all I am so incredibly grateful to all the people who came before me in this journey… “ Speaking about African-American on young African American children who come to visit the painting. "I know the kind of impact that will have on their lives because I was one of those girls.”
Then the tears came when Barack began to speak (and he’s still speaking as I write this).
"Look at that, I look pretty sharp. I tried to negotiate less grey hair," said the president. He added, "I tried to negotiate smaller ears, struck out on that as well."
Indeed, I tried to keep my fears of Trump at bay, because these nostalgic emotions felt so good. Trump has turned me into an angry person. I don’t like being this way.
Now he’ s done, and there are real tears. He leaves the stage. Indeed, he has left the stage.
Reflecting:
I can imagine how, depending on where the country is, there will be many people at the National Portrait Gallery who will stand transfixed in front of these portraits and either cry or breathe a sigh of relief.
There will be a line, a crowd, for weeks just to see these images, to gaze up close and personal as they’re likely to ever get to the Obamas and look into their souls so dramatically captured by the artists.
About President Obama artist Kehinde Wiley.
About Amy Sherald
Monday, Feb 12, 2018 · 5:04:25 PM +00:00
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HalBrown
Barack and Michelle Obama don’t like to waste an opportunity, in word or action, to make larger points about contemporary life and culture. In that vein, their choices of artists for their official portraits in the collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery shine a spotlight on the state of American art. One is an established figurative painter, the other is relatively unknown and a possible rising art-world star. Both are African-American.
In their selection of Kehinde Wiley, for Mr. Obama’s likeness, and Amy Sherald, for Mrs. Obama’s, announced Friday, the Obamas continue to highlight the work of contemporary and modern African-American artists, as they so often did with the artworks they chose to live with in the White House, by Glenn Ligon, Alma Thomas and William H. Johnson, among others. Their choices then and now reflect the Obamas’ instincts for balancing the expected and the surprising, and for being alert to painting’s pertinence to the moment. NY Times