The small painting Let Me Down Gently (2024) features as its subject the iconic and much-copied Colin the Caterpillar cake. A knife dissects the unfortunate creature and an array of happy and sad caterpillar faces border the central image, conjuring up the emotional highs and lows of birthday parties and office gatherings. Sterling points to the way Colin comes to embody whoever's birthday it is – guests jostle to get the solid chocolate head and the emotion of another year being sliced away can sometimes become too much to take.