Through the combination of autobiographical references and allusions to everyday life in her work, Elizabeth Murray expanded the boundaries of large-scale abstract painting. In fact, Brush’s Shadow is a kind of self-portrait, composed of vaguely recognizable forms that are usually derived from objects such as tables, shoes, and coffee cups. The central green shape represents a brush (“the tool I use to communicate with”); the shape behind it (the “brush’s shadow”) is a figure, a substitute for the artist herself.