Hybrid

My digital selfie is titled “hybrid” because my selfie represents the combination of two main contributors to my identity: the United States and the Dominican Republic. Similarly to Frida Kahlo, who explored her Mexican culture and identity through her paintings, both of these countries have contributed tremendously to my identity. The United States has been my home throughout my entire life, and the Dominican Republic is the home of my mother, whose culture has been embedded in me since my birth. In my digital selfie, I included a picture I took on the plane during my most recent trip to the Dominican Republic as well as a picture of a boat I saw on one of the beaches during that trip. I also included a picture of the lake in Lincoln Park and a picture of my sister and my mom together that I took a few months ago. All of these together form most of my identity, and all of it continues to shape me into who I am today.

Amy Sherald on her Breonna Taylor portrait

Quote #1: “She calls this portrait a contribution to the “moment and to activism—producing this image keeps Breonna alive forever.”

Quote #2: “I wanted this image to stand as a piece of inspiration to keep fighting for justice for her. When I look at the dress, it kind of reminds me of Lady Justice.”

Amy Sherald Effect

Quote #1: Both thereby apostrophize America’s original sin and permanent crisis: the otherizing of the not white, regardless of gradations. 

Quote #2: The standardized hues put race both to the fore and to the side of what’s really going on—an address to Western pictorial precedence, freezing a debate in the present to thaw a conversation with the past and future. 

Kehinde Wiley 

Quote #1: He is known for vibrant, photo-based portraits of young black men (and occasionally women) who are the opposite of scared — they gaze out at us coolly, their images mashed up with rococo-style frills and empowering poses culled from art history. 

Quote #2: “I am interested in evolution within my thinking,” he said. “I am not interested in the evolution of my paint. If I made buttery, thick paintings, there would be critics of that. You just have to proceed.”

Black Masculinity

Quote #1: “I was looking at historical precedent. I was looking at preëxisting images of heads of state, kings, aristocrats, nothing was working. It was all too demonstrative. It was all too self-aggrandizing. And I recall, in between shots, there was a moment of repose where he was sitting essentially as he is here, and it felt authentic.”

Quote #2: “When you look at the background, you’ll see that there are flowers from Indonesia, flowers from Kenya, Hawaii, the state flower of Chicago. And it all kind of gives you a sense of space and place and his trajectory.”