Verbal Description: Try on dreams until I find the one that fits me. They all fit me., 2017

Narrator: Try on dreams until I find the one that fits me. They all fit me. is a vertical oil painting of a young slender person standing alone in the center gazing forward with their hands clasped wearing a bowler hat covered in flowers. 

Amy Sherald: You are standing in front of a painting that is 54 inches by 43 inches. There is a single figure in the center. 

Narrator: The figure wears an earthy white T-shirt tucked into blue and white pinstripe trousers with fine lines that wrinkle along the contours of their body. Though the painting crops out the figure’s legs below their thighs, a slight contrapposto pose is visible in the subtle lean of their weight to one side. At the top of the painting, the subject’s hat is topped with blooming flowers resembling pink and red peonies, a pale yellow tulip and white lily-of-the-valley. The black color of the hat gives it a magnetism like velvet. The floral arrangement is both dense and lively, creating a living composition of its own. The brim, which neatly curves upward, casts a shadow over the right side of the brow suggesting that a bright source of light is coming from the left. Although the model’s skin is rendered in greyscale, the yellow glow of the light warms the open expression of their face. While their skin tone is rendered in grey in the painting, Sherald is primarily interested in painting Black figures because of their absence in art history. The model’s eyes are peaceful, direct and assured perhaps to the point of feeling piercing, and their mouth is closed gently. The life-like scale of the painting generates a feeling of standing eye to eye with the subject. 

Amy Sherald: The background is a lavender purple that looks like it would feel very soft. 

Narrator: This cool lavender background is patterned with faint but dark red rings like splatter from small popped bubbles. 

Amy Sherald: When I made this painting, I painted the background red first. It's a very bright fiery red. I then let it dry and I painted the purple background over top. I use oil paint, so before the paint dries, I use turpentine to drip onto the background to break up the purple colors so that the red underneath shows through. So when you look at this painting, you see the purple, but you also see little speckled parts that show this color of red underneath.