A moment of awe: a captivated Little Girl of Michelle Obama’s portrait goes viral, and the reasons why will most certainly surprise you.
Parker Curry, age 2, was not being cooperative.
Standing in front of the new painting of former first lady Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery, Parker ignored her mother’s pleas to turn around for a photo.
“All I wanted was just one pic,” Parker’s mother, Jessica Curry, said Sunday. “She was just so fixated on the portrait and wouldn’t turn away from it.”
Curry, a lifelong District resident, was so fixated on her daughter being fixated on the portrait that she didn’t see a man to the side taking a cellphone photo of the moment — Parker in utter awe, her mouth agape.
The next morning, Curry said, her phone “blew up.”
The man to the side — 37-year-old Ben Hines, who was in town from North Carolina visiting his parents in Alexandria — posted the photo on Facebook. It went really, really viral. And suddenly, little Parker went from being a little difficult to being more than a little famous.
The photo, taken Thursday, has been shared, liked, tweeted, retweeted and Instagrammed thousands of times around the world. Obama reacted with not one but three heart-eye emoji.
Many of those who responded to the photo said they were inspired by Parker’s reaction.
“This is what America is all about,” tweeted an Atlanta man.
“This young girl can now dream about being someone like Michelle Obama.”
Tweeted another: “I needed to cry over something beautiful instead of crying over frustrating news.”
The striking portrait of Obama — in a long, flowing dress against a light blue background — was painted by Baltimore artist Amy Sherald, who was chosen by the former first lady.
“The first lady inhabits a world of calm, clarity and Wedgwood-hued enlightenment,” Washington Post art critic Philip Kennicott wrote.
At her portrait’s unveiling Obama said she was thinking of little girls — and girls of color, “who in the years ahead will come to this place and see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall of a great American institution. . . . And I know the kind of impact that will have on their lives because I was one of those girls.”
More on Washingtonpost.com.
A very happy ending… 🙂
Michelle Obama Met The Little Queen Who Fell In Love With Her Portrait
The two had a little dance party to celebrate the occasion.
More on hellobeautiful.com.
