In 2010, I read an article in the New York Times (a copy attached to the back of this painting) about Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. She is an Iranian woman whom the Iranian courts sentenced to death by stoning. I was completely horrified at the plight of this woman. At the time I painted this painting there was only a single small (about 1” X 2”) black and white photo of her that had been provided by Amnesty International. I was so devastated by what I had read about Sakineh, that I painted a large painting of her on plywood. I felt as if I could connect her to the earth and life with this painting. I was sobbing while working on it. I wanted to show that she was alive, with flesh and bones, a heart, lungs, liver and blood flowing through her veins. I wanted to show her as colorful and vibrant as possible, beneath her black chador. Originally, I was going to paint over her colorful inner body with a black robe, concealing her life spirit beneath the darkness of her robe. But, I feel that she is better represented with only a shadow of the robe around her, the viewer connecting with her essence as depicted by my anguish and palette knife.