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I had the idea for this series some time ago, but had put it off until I came up with a way to convey my feelings in the piece. However, the tragedy of this piece is that although I had had a clear idea of how I wanted to mould and shape the paint on each canvas using the primary colour signifiers of white for purity (birth), red for passion (or love), and black for death, the reality became very different. I had wanted the canvasses to be almost identical, to allow the viewer the opportunity to explore which colour represented which stage in existence. Black could be the darkness of unrequited love. Red, the pain of birth, or white, the purity of love, or the 'light' people are believed to have seen during near-death experience. I completed the white painting first, followed by the red. It was just after I started painting the black canvas (the acrylic was very thick on the canvas), I couldn't stop myself from thinking about the loss of my father. I was unable to continue and lifted my hands off the canvas, as I couldn't go on. It was only after I cleaned the black paint from my hands I was able to look at the canvas again and knew that I could never do any more to it than I had done. The piece was finished. Expressionist art often explores the emotions and emotive states of the mind, much like poetry. I once studied writing under the tutelage of playwright, Seamus Finnegan, who told me there are only three subjects: Birth, Love and Death

This is the second in a series of three paintings to reflect and represent the three fundamental themes of Birth, Love and Death. As in the previous series, each painting is a single colour (red, white or black), very deep in texture, and has been painted using only the artist's hands. Only the viewer can decide, dependent on their emotive state, which colour (or colours) signifies each emotion.

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