In keeping with the spirit of the late sixties, Elizabeth Murray abandoned painting in favor of interdisciplinary and multimedia works shortly after moving to New York but resumed her painting practice by 1977. By the early 1980s, Murray had become known for her ability to transform images of common items such as coffee cups, tables, musical instruments and dogs into cannily abstracted and lushly painted relief paintings. Breaking with her early minimalist influences, Murray defined her own particular brand of representation as a balance between illusionistic painting and dimensional sculpture.