This self-portrait shows the artist on a raft that she is manifesting through the act of painting, the metaphor being that Art is a lifesaver for her. She even takes on a Gollum-like hunch over her ‘precious.’ She describes the painting as having “an element of melodramatic humor that I wasn’t sure would come across, so I resolved never to show it to anyone. There was no option to not paint it, though. I woke up with the idea during a very intense time in my life. My marriage had suddenly unraveled . . . and I was still trying to come to grips with all of the changes that were about to happen.”
