I have spent a great deal of time studying the work of the Surrealist group that was started by Andr� Breton and enhanced by Salvador Dali and several other wonderful artists, and the Italian Metaphysical movement that Georgio di Chirico and Carlo Carr� started very early in the 20th century.

There is a lot of symbolism here. The shadows of the skeleton key, the jack (the kind kids play with:), and the spherical objects in the foreground have no particular meaning - at least not consciously. I am trapped in a bottle in a tunnel of sorts, with a serene nature scene just beyond. I just can't seem to get to where I want to be.

I enjoy drawing scenes with unknown light sources or varying light sources. The sphere often appears in my work.

This piece was done while I was in New Zealand shortly before I had to leave and return to the U.S. It represents my sense of feeling trapped and unable to be where I wanted to be. I ended up having a "nervous breakdown" about a month after I did this, and ended up in a hospital because of it. I made many changes in my life after that and ended up back in NZ in 1997.