Title: The eternal struggle
Date: 16 - 22 May 1993
Size: 146.5cm x 182.5cm
Medium: Oil on canvas

Subtitled "The internal struggle", this painting has several meanings. It obviously describes the difficulty men and women encounter in their search for love and companionship. It also speaks of the struggle within each one of us, whether male or female, between our own masculine and feminine natures. How to live with balance?

The other story is of the painting of it. The canvas has been over-painted, something I am not in the habit of doing. I had approached the canvas with the attitude that I was now an accomplished painter, I didn't have to think too hard, I was inevitably going to paint a great painting. So I painted a terrible painting. The eternal struggle then, for me, is to approach my work, and the rest of my life, without preconceived ideas. And this is the ongoing search for 'open-ness', to not paint from my ego but to attempt to 'step aside' and paint from what Jung might call the collective unconscious. I become a witness to the appearance of the painting. This is the eternal struggle.