From KCRW Santa Monica and KCRW.com, it's The Treatment.

Welcome to the Treatment, the Home Edition. I'm Elvis Mitchell. My guest, the painter Amy Sherrill, has a show at Howes-Renworth Gallery in downtown L.A.

It is the Great American Fact. I think the Great American Facts that she's here to talk about her work.

Amy, thank you so much for doing this.

Thank you. Thanks for asking.

One of the things I love, especially after seeing your work, is reading what people say about it. And the reaction between the skin tone and the vibrancy

the colors you use for what people are wearing really seems to catch folks off guard.

I wonder why you think that is. I think it's because most people associate a color,

probably with their own humanity, I guess. And I think that I never really thought about it,

to be honest, until the unveiling of the Michelle Obama portrait. And I know that I got a few

emails because people were upset because she wasn't brown. And they felt like it wasn't representing a real black person, you know, which I can understand,

but just don't agree with.

No, because I think there's something so fascinating about it.

I mean, because first of all, it just strikes me as being this intersection between the real and the surreal.

You know, it's like watching a black, it's basically

sort of like watching if James Vanderzee had been sort of been dropped into Romer Biedon and

what those worlds represent to me. And, and I think it's really just compelling stuff to look at.

Thank you. But do you know what I mean by that kind of intersection? I think that kind of

I think partially is that black and white to people suggest reality.

And the primary colors, there's something playful about the way you use colors often.

And I think having those kind of contrasts can get to people too.

It's not just that there is something about not seeing what people

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