Balthus, oil on Canvas, 36”x48”, in my painting studio I came across the artist Balthus and was taken by his paintings of a young girl named Thérèse. They were evocative and attractive. However, on closer inspection and study I realized that his paintings were problematic. They often showed the young girl’s underwear and had her in sexually suggestive poses. I wanted to respond to these paintings by placing myself in the pose that Thérèse took, but with a few key differences. First of all my gaze is direct and confronting the viewer. The unbalanced power dynamic in the original painting is no longer present. Secondly, my daughter is in the background looking out the window to the outside world. I sit between her and the viewer protectively. She is venturing to look out into the world yet still looks to me for guidance. Finally, there is a third figure in the painting: the nude in the painting at the right who is seemingly leaping from the painting. This nude is the only naked figure in this painting and that is the male figure: turning the norm of the nude woman upside down.