A cover was required for the book, and the idea was to create an image which acted both as an introduction and a resumé. The image also breaks with the rectangle format to a square. A square can work well for this type of painting, which is non-sequential.

I was also interested in developing the idea of a void, and playing around with both negative and positive space, receding and leaping forward. The ambiguity of the painting and its defiance to be put into any kind of category, reflects the wayward nature of the journey of the soul. If it was easy then there would be no reason to take it on. True contentment is not complacency, but a knowledge and experience of a worse condition.

The text of The Seven Valleys is reproduced in full, click this button: