A girl in a somewhat uncomfortable pose is reading a book on a divan in the corner of a room. This is a variation of the painting Pred Ogledalom (Before the Mirror) (before 1927), which features nearly an identical scene. The color blue dominates the whole surface as the ribbon tying all the hues together. The painter plays with perceptual hints of the sensory apparatus, as if trying to test what extent of difference in modulation suffices for the viewer to rationalize the image, to interpret it in accordance with experiential knowledge, thus understanding, e.g., that the blue mess in the background is a white wall, that the black both forms a dress and serves as a place where certain reflexes of illumination appear, and that the mix of blue and brownish yellow brushstrokes comprise a throw blanket, on which the outline of the girl’s legs are barely discernible. Though here we are decades removed from the historical period of impressionism, the term can still conditionally be used as a visual aesthetic, a process of conceiving a painting that is based on perceptual participation in the creative process, not just through the optical mixing of colors as the founding axioms of impressionistic theory, but by engaging the entirety of the sensory organs. Sternen creates the bare minimum for viewers to recognize potential realities. In elaborating upon his concept of contemplating the creative act, Sternen wrote, in German, “Everything is just a presentation […] You must know what’s wrong and what’s right […].”