Michelle Obama Painting

I'm a journalist by trade, but I have been an artist most of my life. I started taking private art lessons in Omaha, Nebraska, at age 9. But then by age 12, I had put art on the back burner for cheerleading and boys. So then when I went to college, I got poor grades in art so I switched to writing. I worked at small ad agencies, newspapers and large corporations most of my career. I've always done portraits because I find them the most challenging. I would always paint pictures of friends and coworkers during the holidays to make extra money. When I lived in Chicago, my portraits became bigger and brighter. I think it was because I lived in an artist building on the corner of Milwaukee and Damon, where there were artists from all cultures living there. They encouraged me to stretch the limits of my creativity. On my way to work in the city, I admired the large scale bright banners that I would see in the apartments along the El line. Some were political, others decorative, but the Expressionist portraits I'll never forget! Big gallons of acrylic hardware paint usually cover the backgrounds of the door-sized cotton curtains that I have been painting for the past 10 years. I use tiny brushes to get the hard edges. In 2009, I painted a small banner of Barack Obama in response to a rousing speech I heard on TV. It was later used at a political rally at a restaurant in Idyllwild where I live. Then I started doing more banners of jazz icons to decorate that same restaurant each year during a jazz concert. I like painting big because of its impact! It can be challenging to get the right scale. I don't use a projector or any equipment except chalk. Sometimes it takes awhile to get it right! I turn the canvas over and over and make the blocks of color more abstract and bright! Even though sometimes I paint political figures, I don't like to discuss politics with strangers! They always talk louder than me and seem to know more about the subject, but I believe that a strong image is better than all the words you can say! Most of the banners I've done are of people I admire who are creative in the arts or in the public arena who have courage and determination! Lately, I have been doing a series that deals with race relations in the United States. Every time there's a shooting, and another young black man dies, it makes the news for awhile, and then disappears from public memory.