In October of 2016, I was photographing Serafina, the daughter of a friend of mine in Rhinebeck, NY, when she started to discuss something that happened at school. It was one of those life lessons where one gets burned by close friends and you need time to recover your confidence. While she was talking, she seemed to retreat a bit into her comfortable sweater and I asked her to pull it over her face while she continued to talk. Although I had several photos of her looking at the camera, I preferred this image because it represented her "retreat" and her shaken confidence. She seemed to feel more comfortable behind the sweater. We also talked about the upcoming election with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and that didn't help her confidence. She was concerned.

After the election, this painting took on another significance. I see her now as worried about her future as a young woman under the Trump presidency and what that means to her generation and gender.

Personally, this is one of my favorite paintings because her retreat into the sweater is a mystery and viewers are curious and concerned.