Self Portrait, Soviet Dorm Room 1984, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 37 x 20 in. / 93.98 x 50.8 cm.

I was visiting my husband, in Moscow on a teaching Fulbright. The room was very Soviet: rickety furnishings, noisy plumbing, parquet floor that gave me splinters. And the chandelier had ears, as we later learned to our dismay. I knew I wanted to paint those long, dusty, textured gold curtains.