Lucy Fradkin’s work has a flat, folk sensibility. The self-taught artist uses color, collage, and pattern to create arresting portraits and other intimate visual narratives. Fradkin has traveled in Europe and Central America, as well as to Mexico and Haiti, bringing home ideas and influences from the visual culture of these places. One of her regular subjects is her husband, Arthur Simms, who is also an artist working in New York City. In this portrait, Fradkin has drawn on the traditions of Indian miniature painting to honor Arthur’s mother, Icema, who, like others from Jamaica, might have been of Indian descent. The painting was created when Icema was seriously ill.