Right from the beginning I had been building up a library of photographs and I had taken my camera to a shopping mall for this painting. I really enjoyed the compositional weight of this woman's stolid resignation.

This was the first time I had used a lot of red (the real woman was wearing white) and I also experimented with pattern around her form and the use of lettering. It is a very small painting, and much too dark, but I have always liked it the best of my early work.