A vision for the future

The Artdog Image of Interest

I couldn't think of a better image or a better note of hope on which to end this month's Images of Interest series of feminist artworks. Today's piece, Rainbow Shabbat, 1992, by Judy Chicago, is a large, stained glass installation.

It is the culminating image of Chicago's "Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light," created over a period of eight years, collaborating with her husband, photographer Donald Woodman.

As explained in Wiki Art, "To conclude the exhibition, Chicago wanted an image of hope, a vision for a future in which people are joined together across differences in age, gender, race, faith and culture to live in harmony with one another and the natural world."

The work was inspired by a Shabbat dinner in the home of some friends in Israel, where she and Donald had gathered with a group of others. As she described it later:

"There were twelve people there: men and women from four different countries, of different ages, and mostly strangers. We all went around the table and told stories, and everyone listened for hours. For me the evening brought up not just feelings about my childhood but also the incredibly warm moments Donald and I had shared with Jews around the world. Being welcomed into Jewish homes during our travels gave us a profound sense of a global community and provided me with an idea for the last image of the project, an image of optimism and hope."

On a personal note, I think it's kind of fitting that this feature posts, as it usually does, on a Friday. Just before sundown tonight, it will be time to welcome another Shabbat. Gut Shabbos and Shabbat shalom to all!

IMAGE: Many thanks to Wiki Art for the Rainbow Shabbat image and much of the information used in this post. 

It's the reading season!

It's time to start practicing. A new season of readings approaches rapidly. That means I need to find scenes or chapters from my work that are relatively self-contained and appropriate lengths (usually 20-30 minutes), then start practicing, so I can read smoothly and clearly, and also build up my voice so it will last 20-30 minutes.

In addition to the conventions I'll attend (I already know I'll be scheduled for a full hour of reading at DemiCon 29, and I've requested to do readings at other conventions through the summer), I'll also be participating in a panel discussion about writers' groups, and doing a short reading at a meeting of the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society (KaCSFFS), April 21.

That's Saturday, April 21, 7:00 p.m., at The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania Ave., Kansas City, MO 64111.

At the KaCSFFS meeting, I'll share the "reading chair" in the Library at The Writers Place with two friends who also are writers.

Holly Messinger

One is Holly Messinger, author of The Curse of Jacob Tracy (2015 from Thomas Dunne Books) and the upcoming sequel, Curious Weather (due in 2019 from St. Martin's Press). Holly plans to read from Curious Weather:

"When Jacob Tracy—Civil War veteran, ex-seminarian, and reluctant psychic—agrees to move into Miss Fairweather’s St. Louis mansion and study magic with her, he has one purpose in mind: to hunt down and destroy the necromancer Mereck, a predatory madman who has twice tried to make a meal of Trace and trapped Trace’s partner Boz in a monstrous half-life.

"Sabine Fairweather has her own grievance with Mereck, though Trace doesn’t know the details and doesn’t particularly want to. The woman may be a brilliant scientist and a powerful witch in her own right, but there is darkness in her and bitter secrets that threaten the tenuous faith Trace has in her.

"With Mereck’s minions circling ever closer, and old allies posing unexpected threats, Trace knows he and Sabine have no choice but to trust each other. But for that to happen, he will have to lay bare all the deepest secrets of her soul…and quite possibly her heart."

Lynette M. Burrows

The other is Lynette M. Burrows, author of My Soul to Keep, an alternate-history thriller set for release from Rocket Dog Publishing this summer (stay tuned to her website for details). She will choose a reading from My Soul to Keep:

"Miranda Clarke lives a charmed life . . . until she breaks the rules.

"It is 1961 but the world isn’t the one you know. The Prophet Josiah Shepherd, backed by billionaire J. D. Wagner and the Isolationist movement, kept the United States of America from entering World War II. The Nazis control Great Britain, Europe, and Northern Africa. Unopposed, Japan rules the east. America is a theocracy, a land of righteous repression led by the Fellowship and its council of greedy white men.

A concept drawing of one of the deadly Azrael, by Lynette's
husband, artist Robert Burrows.

"Miranda’s parents are part of the Fellowship's elite, the inner circle. Her father, the nation’s premier preacher-politician, is on his way to the presidency. And Miranda's hope of living a quiet, private life vanishes. But when Miranda makes a break for freedom, she learns everything she thought she knew is a lie:

"Her vengeance-seeking aunt isn’t dead.

"Her parents and the supposedly benevolent Fellowship Council aren’t benevolent.

"And the terrifying tales of the angel-assassins called Azrael aren’t just stories.

"Miranda must escape a religious re-education prison, discover the truth behind her horrifying nightmares, outwit her mother’s deadly ambitions, and destroy the ruthless, cloned angel-assassins who pursue her—or die."

I promise--having seen advance peeks of both books--they will be delightful reads.

Jan S. Gephardt, by Colette Waters

But wait. What about that third woman on the program? What's her book about? Yeah, well, that would be me. My book is called What's Bred in the Bone, and it's a space opera/mystery set in a future when Humans have found or created other habitats in the reaches of space. If all goes well, it'll be available in summer or early fall 2018:

"XK9 Rex is a dog who thinks too much.

"When a spaceship blows up among the docks at the Hub of Rana Habitat Space Station, the implications reach to the highest levels of the tiny sovereignty. But Rex is sidelined by a rookie mistake that puts his Human partner Charlie in the ICU.

"Now he’s on the outside looking in: worried, lonely, desperate to get back to his Pack and his life’s-work. He and his Packmates have been engineered and cyber-enhanced to be the most advanced forensic tools available to law enforcement, by a famous genetics lab—underwritten by the military intelligence of Transmondia, the Chayko System’s dominant power.

Rex in a happier moment: giving Charlie's niece Sophie a
doggie-back ride, as envisioned by Lucy A. Synk.

"But the XK9s are more than forensic tools, and more than their owners, the Ranan Orangeboro Police Department, ever bargained for. When Rex strives to prove just how capable he and his Packmates truly are, he unmasks a secret that could destabilize the entire System—and places all XK9s everywhere in mortal peril."

I hope you'll join us--we'll also conduct a short panel discussion about writers' groups, possibly with Dora Furlong and Rob Chilson joining the panel. Remember, that's April 21, 7:00 p.m., at The Writers Place in Kansas City.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Judith Bemis for the photo of me at the NASFiC last year (reading an announcement of Chesley Award winner--but it's the best "reading" photo I have!); to Holly Messinger for the photo of her; to Macmillans for the Curious Weather cover image; to Lynette M. Burrows for the photo of her, as well as the photo of the Azrael by her artist husband Robert Burrows; to Colette Waters Photography for my head shot; and to Lucy A. Synk for the whimsical vision of XK9 doggie-back riding.

Glaringly clear

The Artdog Quote of the Week

IMAGE: Many thanks to izquotes (found via Quotesurf) for this quotation from Julie Christie.

From tar beach to star-flying

The Artdog Image of Interest

Faith Ringgold, Tar Beach (Part I from the Woman on a Bridge series), 1988.

Faith Ringgold's story quilt Tar Beach (Part 1 from the Woman on a Bridge series), 1988, rewards some time spent looking at it closely. The quilt has enough going on in it to provide several of the illustrations for Ringgold's 1991 children's book, also titled Tar Beach. 

The book Tar Beach is a semi-autobiographical account of a little girl, Cassie Louise Lightfoot, in Harlem, New York in the 1930s (not coincidentally, Faith grew up there during the 1930s).

At night in the summer, Cassie sleeps on the "tar beach" of her apartment building's rooftop, and dreams that she owns everything she can see. Her prized possession is the George Washington Bridge, and in the story the stars lift her up so she can fly over it. Here is a video from NPR, of Faith reading the book.



The other story quilts in the Woman on a Bridge series (that I could find) are Double Dutch on the Golden Gate Bridge: Woman on a Bridge #2, 1988; Painting the Bay Bridge: Woman on a Bridge #3, 1988; and The Winner: Woman on a Bridge #4, 1988.

Tar Beach, the most famous of the series, is in the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Here's a glimpse of the size of the quilt and more about its background.

Faith enrolled in the City College of New York in 1950, planning to study art--but women could only enroll in certain majors at the time, so she studied art education. She taught in public schools until 1973, when she turned to creating artwork full-time. Listening to her read, however, I'm not sure her inner teacher went away. More likely that's the part of her who wrote and illustrated 17 children's books.

I also thought it was fascinating (because I'm fascinated by cultural exchanges) that she picked up the idea to put a fabric border around her paintings from a Thangka exhibition she viewed in the Netherlands.

IMAGES: Many, many thanks to Gathering Books, for an image of Tar Beach that was big enough to allow us to some of the richly-worthwhile view smaller details in the quilt, and to NPR on YouTube, for the video of Faith reading her book.

Retreat!

I had no idea what I was going to
experience when I checked in.

I recently got back from my first-ever writer's retreat, AKA Three Days as a High-End Hermit.

I've always had this daydream about holing up someplace with good room service and soundproof walls, so I could write nonstop for an uninterrupted period of time.

But my thrifty little self has always been a bit dubious about the value of it. After all, I'm not currently employed outside the home, so supposedly I have vast swaths of time at my disposal anyway. Right?

Of course, my Millennial offspring may both be gainfully employed, but they have moved back in to live with my Beloved and me in our semi-large suburban home because it's cheaper, we have the room, and they're saving their money.

One of Signy's cats (Boots) has discovered
that the top of one of my Bettas' tanks is
an awesome vibrator seat (warm, too).
So far, both Boots and Pokoyo the fish
appear to be co-existing okay.

But they're both autonomous adults. Coordinating with them doesn't take that much time. Of course, I do a daily morning-and-evening shuttle, because the parking at my daughter's work is insane and we don't live that far away, so it's not that hard for me to drop her off and pick her up. Gives us a chance to catch up with each other.

We do have animals to care for and feed and get to the vet as needed, which I do a lot of the time (now that I have lost Jake, all but two of the fish are my daughter's, but I like her dogs, cats, and even her blind lizard that has to be hand-fed daily). It's not that much of a chore. Also, there are the usual housekeeping-business things (repairs, insurance claims, contractors) that usually fall to me because I'm home and available.

Oh, and I have regular dates for lunch, coffee, and/or art museum trips or writing workshopping with assorted friends, as well as regular check-ins with my 93-year-old father, who also lives nearby. But a woman can't be a hermit all the time.

Really. I have lots of time.

This  delicious little birthday cake greeted me
the first night. I took my time enjoying
EVERY MORSEL. (Yes, the moon was solid chocolate).

For my birthday, my sister Gigi (also a writer, the best friend of a writer, and the widow of a writer) called my bluff this year. She booked me for a weekend at The Fontaine, an elegant little boutique hotel less than two miles from my home, on the west end of the Kansas City Country Club Plaza.

So, kind of dubious but willing to experiment, I packed my clothing, my computer, my sketchbook full of Rana Station visualizations, and my Journal . . . and I checked in.

OMG, the Fontaine is beautiful. Check out their website--but be warned. It doesn't do them justice. Most especially it doesn't do the warmth, friendliness and courtesy of the staff justice. I have rarely felt more welcome anywhere. From the moment I wandered in, I was greeted, guided, and offered any help needed--and that "TLC" treatment continued, without fail, no matter who I talked to, for the entire three days I was there.

But I also had some clear objectives and a lot of work to do. I had just sent the first novel in the XK9 "Bones" Trilogy, What's Bred in the Bone, off to a collection of trusted beta-readers, charged with telling me where it "worked," where it didn't, and whether they liked it, preferably by the end of the month. I desperately needed to think about something else and let them read in peace, without getting little "Are you done yet?" "Is it okay?" and "Did you (oh, PLEASE GOD!!!) like it?" messages from me every couple of days.

I had a second and third novel in the trilogy to get a handle on. Yes, I knew in general what I planned to do with them. But specifically? Not so much. At least not in detail. My primary objective for the weekend was to build a timeline for the second novel, A Bone to Pick. I also hoped to rough in a good, much more specific plan for the third novel, Bone of Contention. 

Brunch was like the rest of the Fontaine: elegant, delicious, accommodating, and welcoming. I got totally spoiled!

On my normal schedule, I'd expect that process to take a while. Possibly a couple of weeks. How much better could I do, uninterrupted?

And I do mean uninterrupted. I went to the lovely brunch each morning for a good, high-protein breakfast. I ordered supper in, either from Room Service or from a favorite local Chinese restaurant. I went on several "thinking walks." Otherwise, I worked (or slept. I did some of that too. But when I did, I dreamed about what my characters might do in various scenarios. I was that immersed).

Suffice it to say I met my objectives, and then some. I got my second novel's timeline done. I got my third novel planned out in semi-detail. I even got the next trilogy, and the one after that roughed in. I'm not sure I've ever gotten this much done, this coherently, in this short a time. Ever.

Any doubts I may have had are gone. The weekend was worth its weight in gold, as far as advancing my projects is concerned. Guess what I mean to do, once I've finished A Bone to Pick, and sent it off to my long-suffering betas?

IMAGES: All photos were taken by me. Feel free to re-post any of them you wish: all I ask is an attribution and a link back to this post. Thanks!

Challenging absurd distinctions

The Artdog Quote of the Week

IMAGE: I put this quote-image together with some help from Julie Kim of Red Rocket Creative Strategies (for the background photo--see also the excellent article that goes with the image!) and Robert Webb, without whose quote this thought would not be complete! Thank you both!

Green shenanigans

The Artdog Image of Interest

Today's Image of Interest has more than a touch o' the Blarney goin' on.

This photo dates to 2016, When Alan Lawrence, a Utah art director, photographer and web designer combined forces with his wife, baby son Rockwell, and--for this photo--the family dog, to create a memorable St. Patrick's Day picture (don't worry about the dog: the green paint is Photoshopped in).

It's actually part of a series of pictures created for Lawrence's That Dad Blog, his Instagram account, and his Facebook Account. I discovered these creative family moments via an article for TODAY by A. Pawlowski. This one was my favorite, but check out the whole, imaginative collection via the embedded links!

IMAGE: Many thanks to Alan Lawrence, via TODAY! And a happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

Arming teachers?

I'm no longer an active classroom teacher, so you might wonder if I even have a right  to weigh in on the question of arming teachers to prevent school shootings. However, as a second-generation teacher, I have strong opinions on the subject.

And I'm strongly against it.

Let me be really clear on that. I stand with the teachers' associations who've come out against the idea with a pretty unanimous voice. If you want to read a really snarky voice that totally tells it like it is, check out this reality check, but don't say I didn't warn you.

In my recent studies of police, their tactics, and their approaches to security, I've learned nothing that contradicts this opinion. Most police don't want teachers armed, either. Why not? Well, consider this dilemma:

People don't know how they'll react in an emergency. Police understand this. They train and train--but the real thing is disorienting. And the questions that arise are not easy.

With all due respect to Mr. Trump, running into a dangerous situation (especially untrained and unarmed) would simply increase the confusion. There are enough problems when personnel are both armed and trained.

Remember Fort Hood? Remember how that went down?

There's also the mundane but very real problem of liability. If your school district's insurance rates suddenly shoot up the moment they arm the teachers in the classrooms--in today's climate of austere budgets--what responsible superintendent would move forward with the idea?

For me and for a great many other teachers, the idea that armed teachers are a credible deterrent to school shooters is ludicrous. It's not where our heads are at. Shoot to kill a student or former student? Are you crazy?

Most of us would still be standing between him and the rest of the class, trying to "talk him down," till the bitter end. If you'll recall, "between the shooter and the class" is where a great many teachers have been killed.

There are always a few who defy the generalizations. But let me assure you, "crossfire" is a real thing, teachers' unquenchable faith that students can be reached is a real thing, and in general, the unwisdom of arming classroom teachers as a deterrent to schools shootings, is ALSO a very, VERY real thing.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Me.Me for the "which one is the bad guy?" photo, and to The Progressive Cynic for the image that references the Ft. Hood shooting.

Why we should respect student protests

There are always a few. Not content to let history teach a giant, life-altering civics lesson, there will be a few school administrators who won't respect students' First Amendment rights to join the groundswell movement of student protests against gun violence, because it's "too disruptive."

We owe it to these kids to respect their fear and their feelings NOW. No one wants to live with a target on her back. Seeking the chance to "LIVE in order to LEARN" is NOT an unreasonable request! 

When I was a high school journalism teacher, I saw this impulse first-hand. The traditional impulse of many schools is to keep the kids quiet, out of the way, and docile. The Paradigm of Control runs crosswise to the First Amendment (also to critical thinking).

Even more than corporations, kids are people, my friend. They have rights, weirdly enough including the rights of free speech, to freely assemble, and to petition the government. In my research for yesterday's post, I found a quote that seemed à propos of the #ENOUGH movement and students' rights in general.

People tend to place children in some kind of sub-human category, maybe a little higher than pets (or maybe not). That's always bothered me. Even when they're too young to be completely autonomous, they always, ALWAYS deserve respect.

It may be more time-consuming to reason with the child (and--reality check--parents sometimes have to just decide), but in my experience it's always worth listening, explaining, and respecting. In the household, in the classroom, and in life, it just always works out better to listen and to respect. (Remember, they're the ones who'll pick your nursing home).

I also stumbled across a fun website built on that very principle: Kid President (unfortunately suspended in 2016, it seems). But in the spirit of the student protests and the message of this post, here's a word of wisdom from Kid President:

You've now been schooled. Go forth and respect!

IMAGES: Many thanks to to the Mankato Free Press, AP images, and Jim Mone, for the photo of the student protest in Mankato, MN, from which I cropped a detail for emphasis; to Gryphon House via Pinterest for the quote and image from Stacia Tauscher, and to Odyssey, Robby and Brad, for the Kid President quote/image.

#ENOUGH

A month ago today on February 14, 2018, one of the deadliest mass school shootings occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, USA. Along with a lot of my compatriots, I braced myself for the usual round of reactions, because this is very far from a situation without precedent in my homeland. My fellow Americans and I knew what always seems to come next.

People evacuate Stoneman Douglas High School in the wake of the shooting Feb. 14, 2018, in this Getty Images photo by Joe Raedle

The dismay, the grief, the outrage.
The thoughts and prayers.
The talk about "maybe this time--finally--things will be different."
The calls for gun control (knowing nothing will probably happen).
The calls for better mental health care (unfunded, of course).
The arguments about good guys versus bad guys that have never yet seemed rooted in practical reality to me.
The legislative attempts that no one can get quite enough people behind, to pass.
The "must pass" bills that accrue amendments like barnacles. then sink under their weight.

The gradual subsidence into the previous status quo.

This 2013 cartoon by Jeffrey Koterba of the Omaha World-Herald is just as right-on in 2018--except as of Feburary the child is standing up to demand change.

Except this time something different happened. The surviving students of Stoneman Douglas High School didn't wait for the adults to figure it out. They stood up and said, "#ENOUGH." They walked out in protest. They went to the state capitol and demanded change.

Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School decided to take direct action into their own hands.

They stood together. They stood strong. And pretty soon other kids stood with them. In spite of some administrators' threats to punish them, students all over the country began to stand up and say "we're tired of being targets while you adults argue!"

March 7, 2018 student protests at the Minnesota state capitol in Mankato--AP Photo by Jim Mone.

Pittsfield, MA students from Taconic High School march on Feb. 27, 2018 in solidarity with the students of Stoneman Douglas High School--photo by Gillian Jones, Berkshire Eagle via AP.

Today, on the one-month anniversary of the shooting, students from all over the country will walk out of class in solidarity with the Stoneman Douglas students--including students from our local Kansas City area schools--most with the (wise) blessing of their administrators. So far the legislative responses have been mixed, but as a former high school journalism teacher I am here to tell you that experiences like this don't soon fade from a young person's memory.

And even though some of the kids on these protest marches are currently too young to vote, I'm willing to bet they won't forget this experience once they are old enough. If I were a sitting legislator, I'd be taking note of that.

IMAGES: Many thanks to NPR, Steve Inskeep, Getty Images, and Joe Raedle for the photo of students evacuating Stoneman Douglas High after the attack on Feb. 14; to Politic365 and Jeffrey Koterba of the Omaha World-Herald for the cartoon; to CNN for the photo of Stoneman Douglas students protesting; to the Mankato Free Press, AP images, and Jim Mone, for the photo of the student protest in Mankato, MN; to AL.com (Advance Local/Alabama Media Group), The Berkshire Eagle, AP Images, and Gillian Jones for the photo of Taconic High School students marching in Pittsfield, MA on Feb. 27, 2018 in solidarity with the Florida students; 

Remember K9 Veterans!

IMAGE: Many thanks to Kristen Levine Pet Living for this image. And blessings upon every MWD, working or retired. Good dogs, all!

It's all about power

The Artdog Quote of the Week

IMAGE: Many thanks to AZ Quotes for this thought from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie!

Portrait of a girl

The Artdog Image of Interest 

Frida Kahlo, Portrait of Lucha Maria, a Girl from Tehuacán, 1942

This isn't the most famous Frida Kahlo painting, but I keep coming back to it. Here she brought together several themes that recur in her paintings.

Herself descended in part from indigenous roots, she frequently included references to indigenous Mexican cultures in her work. Tehuacán is the second-largest city in the Mexican state of Puebla, in southeastern Mexico known (among other things) for its vivid embroidery and weaving. The beautiful, exotic Mexican clothing with which Frida created her "signature look" came from there. She also references indigenous culture by portraying the Pyramids of the Moon and the Sun at Teotihuacan left-to-right respectively, under the moon and sun in the painting.

The "split sky" that is half night and half day can also be seen in later paintings, such as Tree of Hope, Keep Firm, 1946, and The love embrace of the universe the earth mexico myself diego and senor xolotl, 1949). Many interpretations for this have been offered.

She also often added touches of contemporary life in her work. the toy airplane in young Lucha Maria's hands is thought to be a reference to World War II, which was raging at the time; my best guess is that it might be a model of a CANT Z.1007 Alcione in desert camouflage.

Frida herself was overshadowed in the art world for years, known mostly as Diego Rivera's wife. She lived a short but passionate life, plagued by illness, and died of cancer in 1954.

IMAGE: Many thanks to Frida Kahlo.org, and the page devoted to this painting, for both the image and some of the information about it.

So, I wrote this book . . . the saga continues.

Anyone who's been reading this blog periodically may have stumbled onto a mention or three about the science fiction novel I've been working on.

To be fair, it's a science fiction universe I've been creating, the physical setting and milieu for a whole series of novels. Any blog posts I've written about future trends, such as last year's series on automation, the DIY Space Station series, first responders, and/or police K-9s, MWDs, or service animals, all have been directly inspired by research aimed at making my fictional world seem more real.

The book's still not published, so, no: this is not a sales pitch. It's more like an update. After the 2016 post that marked the end of an early draft, it went through a series of editorial reviews by professionals I trust, as well as a lot of beta-readers' reviews (note: beta-readers are kind of like beta testers, only for books).

And it underwent lots and lots (and lots and lots) of revisions. As far as the comments from my various critique resources have been going, it apparently continues to improve. I recently sent it off for what I hope is a final round of critiques. Considering the sequel's now almost finished, I'm hopeful I can offer more substantive updates here soon.

IMAGES: Many thanks to the ever-witty Tom Gauld, via Pinterest, for the "Jealous of my Jetpack" picture, to Roxanne Smolen's Instagram Page for the illustrated Phyllis Whitney quote, and to Kathy R. Jeffords for the "2nd Draft Won't Kill You" design and thought.

Doing the math

The Artdog Quote of the Week

You'd think this would be kind of obvious, but it's clear much of the world just can't bring themselves do the math. Gender equality is more than just a goal in itself. It's a better way forward for all of us.

IMAGE: Many thanks to Mic Network, via Pinterest, for this image and quote by Malala Yousafzai. 

Everything

The Artdog Image of Interest 

Amy Sherald's Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance) speaks to me on so many levels it's hard to know where I should begin. From her vibrant red hat slipping down over her eyes, to the awkward mismatch of her two-sided dress, to Those Gloves and That Enormous Cup--this young woman is loaded down by expectations that others have piled onto her.

There have been times when I've been that young woman. I suspect there are times when most of us have been that young woman. Certainly this painting speaks to me of all the myriad expectations that confront women. We are supposed to be poised (even when we're not), stylish (even when our style is not "in"), to steadily support that massive cupful of expectations, and make it look easy (even when we're struggling).

I first met Miss Everything face-to-face when The Outwin came to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City recently. Once one has met her, she's hard to forget.

PLEASE NOTE: Amy Sherald and Michelle Obama recently unveiled Sherald's painting, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, the official presidential portrait of the former First Lady, at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, USA. I particularly enjoyed a New Yorker article about the work, written by Doreen St. Félix. Perhaps you'll enjoy it, too.
ALSO: For those who live in the region I do, you may want to note that a solo show of her work will open at the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis on May 11, 2018. It is set to run through August 19.

IMAGE: Many thanks to the "Gallery Gurls" interview with Amy Sherald, by Imani Higginson, for the photo of Miss Everything.