Although MacIver did occasionally paint people, a notable example being her well loved painting of the circus performer Emmett Kelly, I found that the reflections on human tears below illustrate the more consistent way in which MacIver chose to represent the human experience in her work–not through painting people themselves, but through painting a view of the world that is itself imbued with a meaning and emotion which connects to shared experiences of mankind. Take, for instance, one of the notes below, in which she lays out plans for a painting from the vantage point of a person looking out at the world through tears after bidding farewell to someone, or something, that was dear to them.  In this way MacIver again engages with the concepts of her poet contemporaries, who also sought to represent the discovery of universal meaning in individual experiences.