In this early work, Howardena Pindell layered thick hole-punches and thin sheets of translucent graph paper. The technique was influenced by her parents; as she remembers, “my father had a degree in math and wrote numbers in a small book that had a grid ... my mother made beautiful note paper using dried flowers, tissue paper, and wax paper.” The small round shapes also recall a difficult childhood memory: as a young girl, Pindell stopped with her father for root beers in Kentucky, and they were given mugs with a large red circle on the bottom, designated for non-white customers.