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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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… — Amy Sherald Copy Share Image
Once my paintings are complete, the model no longer lives in the painting as themselves. I see something bigger, more symbolic - an archetype. — Amy Sherald Copy Share Image
The people I choose as models have a quality that seems to contain the past, the present, and the future all at once. It's… — Amy Sherald Copy Share Image
I paint American people, and I tell American stories through the paintings I create. — Amy Sherald Copy Share Image
When I started school, I would draw pictures at the end of my sentences: a house, a flower, a tree, a bird. Whatever was… — Amy Sherald Copy Share Image
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… — Amy Sherald Copy Share Image
Success, for me, is staying true to who you are and not deviating off a path. — Amy Sherald Copy Share Image
