Rummaging through an old trunk once owned by Gertrude Hodgeman, a missionary nurse who worked in China, Fenton came across photographs, including one that had the pencil inscription “My New Hat” scrawled on the surface. Knowing that Ms. Hodgeman was long gone and thinking about the inscription, the artist was inspired to create a series of paintings dealing with the energy and vigor of the pictured youth and the fleetingness of that energy, idealism, and life itself.