The Evolution of Her

Behind the painting

The story of The Evolution of Her.

I began The Evolution of Her in 2017 while I was leaving a very toxic relationship. Her body was turning away from that relationship and toward the light. There was defiance in that gesture, too. Part of me was telling him he could kiss my b*tt.

I wanted her to have a touch of lavender. I had just found out that I had lupus in August of 2017, and I felt that the strain of the relationship had been the last straw behind my flare-ups. Purple connected her to lupus awareness, but it was also my favorite color. That touch of lavender belonged to what I was living through.

At the time, I thought she was finished. But as she hung on my walls, I kept feeling that something was missing.

In 2025, I returned to her as a woman who had grown past that earlier defiance. I saw her turning away from the darkness and into the light, beginning to become the woman I wanted to be.

I changed the shadows and shading around her body and enhanced some of her highlights. Her light began to truly shine, and she came to life.

I spent roughly forty hours on the original painting and another five reimagining her in 2025. Those forty-five hours belong to two different chapters of my life. It took until 2025 for the woman I saw in her to shine through.

Acrylic on canvas · 16 × 20 inches · 2017–2025