Aeling received her B.A. degree in painting and printmaking from Colorado State University in Fort Collins in 1988 and her M.F.A. degree in painting from the University of Washington in Seattle. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Graduate Fellowship from the University of Washington, a National Fine Art Award, a Smithville Special Award, and an Art St. Louis Honor Award. Her work has been exhibited at the Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin, Texas; the Hoyt Institute of Art in New Castle, Pennsylvania; and the Boulder Center for the Visual Arts in Boulder, Colorado. In this painting, Aeling balances a small image on the left that relates directly to the large image on the right. The dialogue between these images seems charged with emotion, whereas the sedate blue color to the left emits a calm and somber mood. The surprising spray of green color in the middle adds another element of intrigue to this intellectually challenging work.