"Conscience and Desire" - although it looks complex, might be one of the easiest of my recent pieces to decipher.

Like so many of my pieces this one began as a doodle - but it soon took on a life of its own. Having modelled the hand as I wanted it, in a sort of "grasping" mode, it suddenly struck me how bizarre it would look to have each finger "sprout" mini-arms with hands for extra grip: and that - simply - is how the piece began. Next is how it evolved.

After completing the "whole hand" (as usually happens with my work, I start to see some semblance of purpose in what I'm doing but still no idea where its going) I began to wonder what on earth could such a robust, strenuous and tangled piece of flesh be wrestling with? I didn't know what it was but it was something very "difficult to control" (if an arm with five hands was needed) so I created a serpentine shape, wriggling and writhing in the hands. It was hard to know which was winning - especially after the "serpent" had entwined the wrist: this now began to look like a fight to the death.

The next stage was to "set the scene" and it seemed right that this almighty struggle was set in an enclosed or private, dark place. The lighting therefore had to be "just right" - otherwise the energy of it would be lost - and after what seemed like endless tweaking of the lights, movement of the hands and both transparency and shape of the "serpent" it was finished - or was it? Of course it wasn't because I still didn't know what it was.

Two complete months went by before it came to me - it was a representation of how I see my own "Conscience and Desire" and the continuous struggle that goes on between them.

BUT - does the image depict a new or awakened, fully energised, unwanted desire being wrestled into submission by conscience. OR - is it the ever-alert, persistently interfering conscience that is being restrained by a tenacious gripping desire?

This description is likely to evolve with time! 26.11.12

.......... "Conscience and Desire" - detail.....................ll