Lecturer at the Yale School of Art, Sophy Naess has been steadfastly creating a body of self-portraiture in which she documents her physical and emotional states. Building on Maria Lassnig’s approach of ‘body awareness painting’ [Körperbewusstsein], each year, on her birthday, Naess paints herself. In doing so, she creates steppingstones that provide visual and psychological paths that wind through her past and to the present. In this portrait, the artist is seen painting herself over a mirror, staring directly at the viewers. In doing so nude, the artist accentuates her vulnerability and candor in depicting her physical state as much as her state of mind during a most unusual year.