Adriana began her life-sized self-portrait last week by allowing me to trace the outline of her body on a piece of paper against the wall.  It tickled and was just a little creepy, she told me, to be outlined.  Although Adriana is a bundle of expressive energy, she did not want to hold her arms out to be traced, but kept them straight at her sides.  "I'm not really that tall," she said when looking at her outline, and pointed to the half-inch soles of her flip-flops.  Using tempera, we worked together on the background, and we experimented with various skin tones before we were satisfied.

This week she finishes her picture by adding flowers - tall and straight and spare, as she is herself.  She debates on whether to add a sun or clouds with rain, as flowers need both to grow.  She settles on sun for this particular painting, pushing the yellow paint to the edge of the sun with a straight brush.  "My mother showed me how," she says.  "She is an artist, you know!"

She is engrossed in this project and insists on drawing each flower and then the sun with pencil before painting them.  After starting each flower and then the sun, she is dissatisfied, saying, "Oh it's ugly."  Fortunately, though, she presses through her dissatisfaction until she is happy.

"Your flowers remind me of you," I tell her.  Both stand simply, straight and straightforward, and seem to meet the world without wavering.