At first glance, this graphite drawing appears to depict rolling hills or gentle waves. Upon closer inspection, patterns of hair and small white crescents of earlobes emerge, suggesting the tops of heads poking up between cresting waves. Robyn O’Neil was inspired by the Abstract Expressionist artist Philip Guston’s early 1940s drawings of soldiers being trained to inflate their own clothing for use as life preservers. In this work, O’Neil has removed any references to war, instead emphasizing the movement of the water and the unknown figures floating in it through her deliberate and repetitive line work.