Gossip 2000 Oil on linen 52 x 42 in. (132.1 x 106.7 cm)

They said she was running up and down the road, dressed in a black dress with white flowers. She was dragging her children, who were wearing fur coats; it was hot, and the children were sweating. They said she had made those little coats herself from an old coat. They said she loved her children so much.

They said she threw them off the cliff at the Botanical Garden. No, no, no — they said she stabbed one with a knife and put a plastic bag over the other child's head to suffocate them. They said she was crazy; that her mother-in-law used to humiliate her, and her children would laugh at her.

They said her husband was seeing another woman; that he often lost at cards, they had to sell the house, and she was ashamed. They said she wore mascara and lipstick in jail and refreshed her makeup every day.