Michelle

Digital art print. Paper: Hot press (smooth) fine art paper.

Illustration of Former First Lady Michelle Obama.

the story behind the art: I couldn’t enjoy the historical significance of the First Family in America being black because I was holding my breath for 8 years. (I was also self-absorbed with grad school the first 4 years.) I wanted them to make it through—alive, emotionally well... (through the racist attacks and commentary). Like Michelle, I too, breathed more easily when their time in the White House was over. I connected with her as a black woman who looks like me as I read her memoir and other books about her. It was comforting to know that for the first time I was truly seen by the most powerful family in the U.S.

I didn’t know that I could have gone to Harvard or any Ivy League school until I learned that Michelle did. You can’t be what you can’t see, and no one was encouraging me as a black teen to think big or really about my future despite stellar grades. I knew my path was high school, college, job. Michelle knew she was Ivy League material because her brother paved the way. Her example and life, regardless of politics, is an inspiration to melanated females everywhere. We can dream bigger than the dream the world has given us.