The title nods to Washington, DC’s contested “Home Rule” — the city’s struggle for autonomy under federal oversight — while also asserting domestic independence: in her home, she rules.

Like many of my paintings, it functions as a self-portrait — not visually, but emotionally — embodying my joy in autonomy and insistence on living by my own rules. Above the door to my studio hangs the words Sanctum Sanctorum, borrowed from Thomas Jefferson, marking the studio as a sacred space where creation and independence converge.