I watched a film recently called ‘Secret Ceremony’ with Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Mitchum and Mia Farrow. It reminded me of your picture as the story is so charged psychologically - it’s about a stepfather who has abused his step daughter for years under the nose of the mother. He brings her roses and continues to abuse her sexually and mentally until eventually she commits suicide. In this, the last scene (having murdered the stepfather beside her daughters open casket) Elizabeth Taylor recounts a fable about two mice:

“Two little mice fell into a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned, but the second mouse, he struggled so hard that he eventually churned the cream into butter and he walked out.”

Hence the title of the drawing.

This quote from Nina Mae Fowler is from the collaborative project De Anima
www.de-anima.co.uk

Read further writing and essays in response to the subjects and themes relating to the work of Nina Mae Fowler here.