"I’ve titled this painting Labor of (Self) Love first because of the slow and fragmented process with which I painted it, a couple of hours every few weeks on a course of seven months, reworking the face especially at each stage, finding and losing the likeness at every step before finding it again at last. It is also because this way of presenting myself in the nude was a way of accepting and loving myself, just as I am, in a society where bodies are often scrutinised and criticised.
Painting this self-portrait felt both empowering and humbling, as presenting myself in this way feels like sharing a very direct and intimate part of myself with the world. Hence my posture is a combination of self-confidence - head straight, direct gaze - and self-protection of my vulnerability through the raised thigh and knee acting as a barrier.
I brought the last touches to this painting just a few days before discovering I was pregnant with my first child, so now I also view the finishing of this painting as the closing of a chapter of my life, before all the changes that pregnancy and motherhood will bring, physically and emotionally."