Andrea Jepson (b. 1938), a friend and neighbor of Ruth Asawa, posed for the artist on multiple occasions throughout and after her second pregnancy. Most notably, soon after giving birth, Jepson served as the model for the nursing mermaids in Asawa’s Andrea’s Fountain (1968) that is placed in Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. In this earlier drawing, Asawa captures Jepson in an intimate moment as she reclines nude on a couch, reading a book. Working in her characteristically minimal style, Asawa delineated her friend’s form in confident but simple pen- and-ink lines, with her hair and the couch’s stripes flowing more freely in looser brushstrokes of diluted ink.