Running Figure, 1942 Oil on canvas board 10 x 8 inches Collection of the Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi 2014.16.33

Hood painted Running Figure within her first year of living in Mexico.  Her style shifted significantly from her previous tightly rendered realistic portraits as she became acquainted with the Mexican muralists, specifically Jose Orozco, and the Surrealists who fled to Mexico from War-torn Europe.  Their influence freed Hood to express her emotions while exploring her psyche. Running Figure features the colors of the sun-drenched Mexican landscape and earthen architecture while also indicating poverty as experienced by the Mexican workers she encountered and the horrors of war that her new friends had encountered. This painting, and others from this period, are deeply unsettling—featuring figures with hollowed-out eyes and grim countenances. Here, Hood elevates the tension by creating a sense of movement with bands of dark color that encircle the figure fleeing from a ghostly apparition.