Eight years ago, when Amy Sherald was chosen to paint the official portrait of Michelle Obama, many people in the art world had never heard her name. Today, at 52, she has become one of America's most celebrated painters, with two major museum retrospectives this year alone. However, her planned third exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery was abruptly canceled after concerns arose that museum officials, already facing pressure from the Trump administration, might attempt to censor one of her paintings.

Sherald's distinctive artistic style features Black American subjects who stare directly out from the canvas with knowing, unapologetic gazes. Her portraits show people posed against monochromatic backgrounds or in scenes as vibrant and bold as the subjects themselves. In one striking painting, a farmer leans against a pristine John Deere tractor, surrounded by brilliant blue sky and green grass. "I think that's important," Sherald explains about her subjects' direct gaze. "I don't think these portraits are confrontational, but they are present. And they do want you to sit with them and have an exchange."

The artist emphasizes that her subjects have work to do in the world. "They have jobs. They're doing their jobs, you know? They're being beautiful, they're being colorful. But they also have work to do in the world," she says. "By standing there and being present, and looking at you, and meeting your gaze. That's the work. They don't have to say anything. But every time you look at that portrait, something is happening inside of you."

Sherald's work now hangs in the most prestigious museums across America and in collections both major and minor. This summer, she gave a private tour of her show "American Sublime" at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, a venue she had dreamed of exhibiting in for years. "I would sit in my studio every day. And I would meditate and visualize myself in this space," she recalls. When asked how the reality compared to her fantasy, she responds simply: "It's exactly like it. Yeah, it's perfect."

Her artistic process begins with photography, seeking out individuals whose energy resonates with her own vision. She explains, "The process starts with a photograph. After I randomly come across some person that, I like to say, like, my energy recognizes their energy, or there's something there, right?" Her subjects include friends, models, dancers, and strangers she encounters on the street. The clothing they wear often comes from thrift stores, with racks of vintage pieces waiting in her studio for the right person.

Two paintings in Sherald's Whitney show featured subjects identified by name. One portrays Breonna Taylor, painted after the young woman was shot to death by police in 2020 during a botched raid on her apartment. The other is Sherald's most famous work: "Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama," unveiled in 2018 to worldwide headlines. Reflecting on the portrait's significance, Sherald admits she knew it would be career-defining but stayed focused on the artwork itself to avoid being overwhelmed by the moment.

Sarah Roberts, curator of "American Sublime," notes the unique quality of Sherald's paintings that cameras cannot fully capture. "There's a quality to the color that is impossible to catch on camera. They have a majesty and a tactility, when you see them in person that they lose in reproduction," Roberts explains. She describes Sherald's work as American Realism, "a way of depicting the ordinary in American life" that reimagines traditional American imagery to ensure "that idea of America includes everyone."

Sherald's artistic awakening came during a teenage class trip to the Columbus, Georgia city art museum, where she saw a painting by American artist Bo Bartlett featuring a Black man. "I realized in that moment that I had never seen a Black person in a painting before," she recalls. "In any painting." That revelation sparked an immediate certainty: "I thought, 'I want to do this, too.' 100. 100. 'Click!' It turned on the light."

Despite her parents' hopes for a medical career, Sherald chose art, spending over a decade painting by day and waiting tables by night. When asked if she ever doubted her path, she responds, "Yeah. But I couldn't give up. Like I always say, the world is full of quitters. And most people don't want the discomfort. And most people don't want the risk. So, if I kept at it, then eventually, something would have to happen."

What happened was unexpected and life-threatening. In 2004, while training for a triathlon, Sherald was diagnosed with a rare heart condition. Her doctor warned, "You're lucky to be alive. Don't do anything to get your heart rate up because you could have a tachycardic episode and you could die." Eight years later, she collapsed in a drugstore and, after months in the hospital, received a heart transplant at age 39. The donor was a young woman named Kristin Lin Smith.

The transplant profoundly affected Sherald's life and art. "It doesn't anymore. But it does, I'd say, for, like, the first five years," she explains about having someone else's heart. "You think about it a lot. I have moments where I think of her. And they're usually when I'm doing something that I wouldn't have been able to do." She honors her donor on Instagram with the hashtag "adventures of Kristin and Amy" and signs her name with a small heart. "So she lives in all your paintings?" Cooper asks. "She does. Yeah," Sherald confirms.

From her warehouse studio in New Jersey, Sherald creates about half a dozen new paintings annually. Her unique approach to skin tone sets her work apart – she paints her Black subjects' skin in shades of gray rather than brown or black. Initially drawn to the aesthetic similarity to old family photographs, she later realized the deeper significance. "I think that it offers the viewer an opportunity to pause and consider something else before we get to that," she explains. "I think we still look at each other through our phenotypes anyway. But they look Black. I can't take Blackness away from them. But the lack of color allows for a different entry point."

This artistic choice emerged from a fear that using brown skin tones might marginalize her work. "When I became afraid to paint Brown people, because I was afraid that the work would be marginalized and not be able to be in conversation with other artists. Just it'd be put in the Black corner," she admits. That concern now seems unfounded, as her paintings sell for as much as $4 million at auction and are compared to masters like Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, and Norman Rockwell.

The comparison to these American Realism legends satisfies a long-held ambition. "It's technically what I wanted, as a Black woman artist, American for people to be like, 'Yeah, Amy Sherald, Norman Rockwell, Edward Hopper.' Like, I'm in the room with the guys. And so, I think I'm OK with it," she says with satisfaction.

The controversy surrounding her canceled Smithsonian exhibition centered on a painting of a transgender person posed as the Statue of Liberty. Museum officials, facing months of Trump administration criticism for being "too woke," wanted to display the piece alongside explanatory video content. Sherald refused this contextualization, stating, "There were conversations about the work being censored. The show was 'American Sublime.' It was a whole narrative. And a trans woman is a part of that narrative for me. Any kind of contextualization around the work would have been unacceptable." The White House applauded her cancellation, calling the painting "divisive and ideological."

When asked about the political nature of her work, Sherald provides a nuanced response: "Today I do. I don't think that its, in its true nature from where it comes from inside of me political. But it lives in the world. And therefore, can be art on Monday and political on Tuesday, you know?" Despite the setback, "American Sublime" found a new home at The Baltimore Museum of Art, opening November 2.

Sherald concludes the interview with a powerful statement about patriotism and American identity. "I don't think there's anybody more patriotic than a Black person," she declares. "I mean, we've been here since the inception of this idea of what American is. We are deeply ingrained in the fabric of this country. This country would not be if it was not for us. So I have to claim that patriotism. Otherwise, I'm just handing it over to somebody to give me the definition of what it means to be American. But I know what the definition of what it means to be an American is. And I'm the definition of an American."