These ideas of symbolism have been swirling and swirling around my head, partly because I want to talk tomorrow about it in class and partly because I want to really re-evaluate what my symbolism is. I make pieces and put a lot of stuff in them and then take a lot of stuff back out of them, I cover up and layer as if I were painting---all in attempts to find the best way to say--and in most cases to find out exactly what it is I'm trying to say. Today I started out with a very complicated composition with many many layers and images and a field of images in different distances and plains and ended up negating most of it to come up with this. I did take this to another place afterwards with more images and further meaning, but wanted to post this simplified self portrait to see if it stands on its own. By Richard Sayer