For La Mira, I found inspiration in Alexandre Cabanel’s The Birth of Venus (1863) and Gustav Klimt’s Water Snakes II (1907). Two parallel narratives run through the composition. First, the similarities in aesthetics and function of religious imagery and erotic imagery (from the Symbolists to present day). These only exist for the express purpose to be gazed upon and be admired as models to follow. Mixed with this, we see the theme of medicine. The gaze of veiled figure, inspired by Our Lady of Sorrows, goes towards the needle, which is easily missed, that floats in an ethereal, unclear space. The shell of the red nymph, with brights colors and spiraling lines, serves as a form of distraction from that medical reality. There is a third body in the composition, the canvas itself; a body in a state of patchwork, stitched together with intent, effort and pain, similar to how the body of a chronically ill person is held together by medicine.