BARBARA ROMAIN

Four words for one woman: mother, worker, ruler, witch.
Barbara Romain placed this among the paintings she made around her graduate years at Otis. Asked what they were about, she answered in six words: "About women — and of course myself."
It belongs to the oil-and-collage period she later drew a line under. "My early work was a lot more figurative and representational," she said. "I used to work more in oil."
A title that reads like a census category and lands like an accusation.