Furthermore, Ms. Holsinger mines art history to import recognizable visual references into some of the portraits. For example, a Van Gogh sunflower vase appears on the kitchen table behind a woman washing dishes at her sink in Mrs. Horst II, and a Dutch Flemish baroque floral arrangement can be seen in Martha II. The artist was encouraged to include such references upon learning that the 17th Century Dutch Mennonites sat for paintings by Rembrandt, patronized the arts, and became painters themselves.

Jayne Holsinger is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner grant and was a Fellow in the Artist In the Marketplace program at the Bronx Museum for the Arts. She recently earned an MFA degree at the Transart Institute, a new-media program based in Linz, Austria.