Hope Gangloff's subject, the stately, determined Julie Packard, stands in front of an aquarium, swimming with iridescent colors, in her portrait, Julie Packard.

"I'm a big fan of portraiture," Gangloff writes. "Humans are endlessly entertaining and interesting. I like painting people I know because the familiarity helps relax both the subject and myself." Gangloff does not paint on commission, following Hockney and Neel. Given the intensely personal nature of her artwork, she chooses to paint from her personal relationships, which gives a heightened intimacy and intensity to the finished product.

Packard is a major figure in conservationism, a hybrid field of political organizing, journalism and biology, focused on the maintenance of wildlife habitats threatened by the encroachment of resource-extraction industries. As the founder of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Packard has endeavored throughout her career to bridge the divide between aquatic wildlife and the consciousness of the general public. Of her father, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, Packard said, "[he] was a very practical person and not really a dreamer. "He was always, 'Let's cut to the chase here, guys.' I value that about him." Like her father, Packard works at several different levels at once, pioneering the research of the deep sea while directing the aquarium.

In her trademark way, Gangloff portrays Packard and her work together, gathered into an image with coloring especially designed to evoke a certain message. Gangloff is careful to balance her political message, which complements that of Packard, with the aesthetic strategy. For her, the two aspects function together, in an inseparable harmony. There is also a direct connection to Hewlett-Packard, which funds a great amount of Packard's research: with great profit comes the responsibility to understand, protect, and honor the ecosystem of the earth. In a single image, Gangloff draws these connections.