“I Once Was Lost” is a self-portrait using toys as metaphors to represent the artist as well as other people and events in his life. The bright colors are meant to suggest a happy facade while an exploration of the content in the circular movement of the composition reveals a cycle beginning with turmoil and ending in discovery and freedom. Bart Simpson represents the artist in both early and later life, while the plastic “Willie Wee Wee” toy and the paint roller and rubber ball of the same colors show him in adolescence and early manhood.