Color Wheel


Florine Stettheimer, Portrait of My Mother, 1925









Portrait of My Mother, Part II



Florine Stettheimer tells her mother&#8217;s story using flattened shapes set atop a patterned background. It&#8217;s an homage and a modernist masterpiece,






Portrait of My Mother






Do I exist? Am I important? Am I beautiful? Find validation in the art of Mickalene Thomas.







Mickalene Thomas redefines female physical perfection in a collage-inspired painting of a nude woman with a gaze that transfixes her audience.

Mickalene Thomas – A Little Taste Outside of Love








Keough&#8217;s dimensionless painting is deceptively simple, full of layered meaning, and funny.



Have you ever noticed that when you look at a painting, your eye moves in a circle, always looking at the same details in the same order? This painting, which looks like a simple line illustration of an armless mannequin, fills me with ideas and emotions  in a very specific order. In this episode I talk about Keogh&#8217;s methods and why they inspire so much thought and self-reflection.

Caitlin Keogh – Intestine and Tassels










Lisa Yuskavage&#8217;s painting of a semi-nude young woman lost in thought fills me with excitement and makes me wonder, &#8220;am I supposed to be feeling like this?&#8221; and &#8220;can other people read my feelings as I look at it?&#8221; In this episode I talk about Yuskavage&#8217;s themes and methods, and why it can be simultaneously so difficult and enjoyable to look at her work.

Lisa Yuskavage – Northview, 2000






This 85-year-old woman is not happy, and I know exactly how she feels.



This nude self-portrait by the twentieth-century painter Maria Lassnig, painted in glowing colors, captures a moment of desperation in the artist&#8217;s life. In this episode I explore what the artist was thinking when she made this painting and why it meant so much to me.