Her arresting pictures, most of them small format self-portraits, express the burdens that weighed upon her soul: her unbearable physical pain, the grief that Rivera's occasional affairs prompted, the sorrow about her childlessness caused her, her homesickness when living abroad and her longing to feel that she had put down roots, profound loneliness. However, they also declare her passionate love for her husband, her pronounced sensuousness, and her unwavering survival instinct.