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In December of 2012, the National Portrait Gallery
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unveiled this monumental image of general Colin Powell, former Secretary of State.
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The artist, Ronald Sherr, was also responsible for one of the National Portrait Gallery's images of President George H.W Bush.
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Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with Ronald Sherr.
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We're using the term "monumental" just because it's a large work.
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- It is. - Are we okay with that? are you happy with that?
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-Yeah, sure. I think of him as a man who is bigger than life and as I was saying earlier,
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that really did have an effect on me when I came in and I saw that painting
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of LL Cool J by Kehinde Wiley. A very dramatic picture
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I was very impressed by it but the overall scale of it
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is what made me think you know truthfully that someone coming to the gallery
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for the first time could look at that and just assume,
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if he knew nothing about American history that he had to have been
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the most important person that had ever lived so right then and there, I decided
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a head and shoulders? no way you know a three-quarter? no way
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and very kindly, the National Portrait Gallery gave me a
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license to do what I felt was best
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so I discussed that with General Powell early on and he was okay,
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the only thing he insisted upon is that it looked like him, he wanted it to look like him
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and then he did express some interest in how I was gonna deal with the fact
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that he had aged since the time he was in the military chairman of the Joint Chiefs
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and you know because he said that his hair was nearly whitish now
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in fact, he made a a comment that was very funny that it is much straighter than it used to be
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and he picked up a lock of it and it is much straighter than it used to be
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but he asked how I was going to do it and I said, I don't know, I'll have to find a middle ground
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but you know I didn't know that until I was into the painting
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I didn't want to paint him you know as he was back then
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I knew that I could do certain things to, for instance, make up for things like whiter hair .
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For instance, if I take someone with very light gray hair
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and I pose them against a dark background, they're going to look like they have really white hair.
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If I pose them against a much lighter background, it brings out the darkness
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so you know, the amount of shadow on that side of his head
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is an important factor in maybe
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giving that slightly younger look to him because it darkens the hair.
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- From start to finish, how much time did the whole process take?
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- I was talking earlier about the changes that I made to the picture but with those changes,
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nearly, I remember talking to Brandon that I was at my limit for the 18-month contract
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literally the whole time and it was because of those endless changes to the picture.
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-Are you happy with it?
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-The portrait? - Yes Sir.
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- I am because as I was saying earlier, the the whole thing for me is
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when I do a portrait, I really try to create
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a feel of the person and although I try that
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on all of them, it doesn't always
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go my way and I really feel like he's there in the portrait, you know.
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I feel like that's the way he stands, I feel like that's the way he kind of looks at you
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and hopefully other people will feel that. I think that's what he sensed and his family sensed
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I got some of the nicest comments from his family, I mean they're wonderful people
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but they were just beside themselves
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and what more could I ask?
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Like I say, if I feel it in the painting,
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other people often feel that as well but I'm not the judge
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you know I mean everyone else from now on, it's up to them.
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-Thanks a lot.
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You're welcome, my pleasure thank you.