During a visit to New Mexico in 1985, George Rodrigue met an Indigenous American woman named Evergreen Lake (pictured). Shortly after their meeting, Rodrigue spent an afternoon photographing Evergreen Lake and used those photographs as reference images for paintings he created during the second half of the 1980s. Evergreen Lake became a recurring female figure in his paintings like Evangeline and Jolie Blonde.In this focused portrait Rodrigue paints Evergreen Lake amongst a background that includes elements of the American flag and colors that call to mind those Rodrigue used in his landscape paintings. Evergreen Lake’s presence in Rodrigue’s paintings helped to expand the visual stories his work communicated about people and their connection to land.