Her portraits focus on issues of race and identity in the American South, and she shared with the audience, many of them art students, how African-American history and the representation of the black body in historic and modern images influence her work.<\/p>\n
Sherald was at Austin Peay State University as part of the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts Visiting Artist Speaker Series.<\/p>\n
After college \u201cI really didn\u2019t know what I was doing,\u201d Sherald told the audience. \u201cI spent a year looking at other artists\u2019 work and tried to figure out if I was in a room with these artists, what kind of work would I make?<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can I make work that would be historically relevant?\u201d she continued. \u201cBecause that\u2019s what I needed in order to be a part of the greater conversation. For me, I got into this to leave behind a legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sherald looked to history, both the nation\u2019s and her own, to find that relevancy.<\/p>\n
She was drawn to the childhood photo portraits of her sisters and her. One shows the three posed, as most family portraits of the 1970s do, hands on shoulders with the sisters ordered youngest to oldest. They\u2019re in Sunday-best dresses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m drawn to this image because it was taken close to the time I was starting to have the impulse to create,\u201d Sherald said. \u201cIn a lot of ways, my existence had already been codified through language and imagery.<\/p>\n
![\"Austin](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin-Peay-State-University-APSU.jpg\" "\\"Austin")
Clarksville, TN<\/strong> – Amy Sherald, already well known before launching to fame with 2018\u2019s official portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama, spoke to a nearly filled Austin Peay State University Morgan University Center Ballroom on Thursday about her development and rise as a portrait artist.<\/p>\n![\"Amy](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Amy-Sherald-shares-inspiration-artistic-process-during-Austin-Peay-State-University-public-lecture.jpg\" "\\"Amy")
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