Painted directly onto the open pages of an 1825 moral instruction book for young girls — Right and Wrong, Exhibited in the History of Rosa and Agnes — this work confronts the idea that virtue can be neatly categorized or assigned.

The original text, written “By a Mother” to guide daughters toward obedience and modesty, echoes the kind of moral certainty I was raised with in a conservative religious household. I later left that faith, and in doing so, had to abandon inherited definitions of righteousness and determine my own. What I learned is that there is no clean division between right and wrong — only nuance, agency, and becoming.

Across the family tableau and the printed lecture on propriety, I painted a woman who refuses to bend. Neither apologetic nor performative, she exists without explanation. Not right, not wrong — simply herself.

The artwork measures 7 × 5.5 inches. It has been float-mounted in an ornate Etruscan Red frame. The final dimensions of this piece are 14.75 × 12.75 inches. This painting arrives framed and ready to hang.