Thank you for posting the high-res images. They do look far better, even on a phone. And I think, for Michelle, it’s the eyes that don’t work. She has large eyes with prominent lashes and usually wears makeup that enhances that. The portrait does the opposite. I think her cheekbones are higher and stronger in life as…

Why is she gray? Why is she the shade of a No. 2 pencil sketch?

Because I’m in the greys, and I know you “know” me, I’ll post this here:

Agreed. They look more like posters than portraits. I especially dislike Michelle’s. It’s so desaturated. I guess when it comes to official presidential portraits I’m a traditionalist.

Yeah, I definitely think from that picture but then I looked up a high res and up close it looks even worse:

Professional art and design historian here.

The B.O. painting is totally on point. I’m lost with the MO painting. Not only does it not look like her (which might be okay), it seems to focus more on her sense of style than her quiet strength. The strength and leadership of her personality, I thought, was reflected in a physicality that should be celebrated.…

I really enjoy the portrait of Obama; the colors are so vibrant and as a result the man himself comes off with the kind of inherent warmth that we know he exudes in real life but that a serious portrait would likely fail to capture. By painting him with a very serious expression against a background of vibrant green…

Y’all, these paintings are SO BAD. The painting of Michelle doesn’t even look like her. I get the desire to break the mold of traditional formal portraiture, but this was not the occasion for that. This country has such an issue with the othering of Black people, and the othering of Obama in particular; these…

Yea, there is some weirdness with the proportions of the upper half of Michelle’s body in general (why is her hand as big as her head? Why do her arms appear to be two different lengths?) that don’t look intentional enough to be a style choice, and kind of make it look like a bit of a first draft.

I do wish the face looked more like Michelle. I mean, it’s a cool painting, I love the contrast of the grey and the blue, and I think the inclusion of the flying geese pattern on her dress is playful and fun (as a quilter I am a big fan of that pattern), but the face is just... off. Michelle Obama is a genuinely…

I want to be positive but I don’t think that looks like Michelle’s face at all....

I really like Obama’s portrait! But... Anybody else think the Michelle portrait kind of looks like a talented high school senior’s portrait of Kerry Washington?

You can just say Kevin Smith.

Let me see, what are the responsibilities of the employee you pay $7.25/hr?...

Seems like the moral of the story is that band t-shirts are misleading?

She is talented. But yeah Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Soundgarden, even Pearl Jam! although now apparently people say Pearl Jam sucks? But whatever I love that stuff.

i did not pretend to like any bands as a youth, primarily because it was abundantly clear that my pretending to like a band would not sufficiently positively influence anyone’s opinion of me to actually cause them to suddenly start liking me.

I’m so sorry, I’ve never seen anything that made me feel so immediately old in my life. Except maybe walking around on campus (I work in a university medical plaza) and watching the ROTC herds go jogging by while I’m in my frumpy office sweater and sensible sneakers.

LOL I love almost all the bands mentioned here. That makes sense, I am pretty goddamn mainstream in all my sensibilities.