This piece is an illustrative enamel brooch protected by aluminum plates, which show the painting through web-like piercings. This was part of my capstone body of work in undergrad, a group of narrative brooches. The story was about how my relationship between my body and my practice changed throughout school, and habits I developed in order to maintain dedication to my program. I fabricated this piece completely by hand. The shape of the aluminum frame comes from a meditative drawing exercise I used to do when I was going through some medical and family-related struggles, to try to transition thoughtfully into a focused creative mindset and make the most of what time and energy I had for schoolwork. The imagery is my view as I was cleaning up my own blood. Dealing with such intense, daily symptoms made me question whether I should stay in school. The rest of the pieces I made after this one are about my experience with maintaining my practice despite all the forces that were pulling me away from it.