A crumpled letter, a shmata, those moon undies Rachel gave me, a 1960s table runner, a bouquet from last spring, Katie’s candle (and holder), and the red bra that fits only one week per month pile up in a blue bucket in my studio. These objects are staged with others to create nonlinear narratives that reflect my lived experiences. They also engage with, and poke at, the history of the still life as a marginalized and anti-academic genre. Rather than fool the viewer into believing that there are real objects or a landscape in front of them, as is the historical intention of trompe l’oeil, I use similarly realistic rendering in an effort to expose the painting and the painter for what they are. The painting is acrylic marks on a canvas. The painter is a messy, young, creative, woman, and/or you. Her studio is chaotic, dirty, and random. When this pseudo–trompe l’oeil is used, certain elements of the painting seem “real” enough to emphasize the thingness of itself, and remove the myth of the painter.