Five Universal Shapes - Symbols of the Inner Life

As in the painting above, many of the paintings in the "Narrative Landscapes of the Heart" series incorporate a line of symbols. I think of these symbols as landmarks along the life journey, indicating significant phases in the person's life. These phases often involve external events, but the symbols are more about the internal life -- especially, what's happening in the heart. When I mark out the life journey on a specific painting, I do it spontaneously, intuitively. I paint the symbols from left to right -- birth to death or to the current phase of life.