24"x12"
Acrylic Diptych on Canvas

This piece was recently conceptually critiqued by a fellow artist ,Aja .
While every work of art seems to have a different meaning to each individual viewer Aja found my exact intent and emotion within this painting.

That is a rare happening to my knowledge.

Aja`s words

"Steve has taken on the raven much like Susan Rothenburg adopted the horse - an icon for the messages he wishes to convey.
He returns to it, much like I return to the nude. Even when breaking away and exploring different subject matter, the raven always seems to make its way back into his creative process.
A single raven - a foreboding symbol thanks to Poe and others, stands perched in stark emptiness, clutching the chain of a heart locket in its beak. The fact that his head is lowered in an almost mournful gesture as he grips the fragile chain of the heart locket (another icon which could be seen as a symbol for love) gives an overall sense of the fragility of love, or at least love "hanging in the balance". This is further emphasized by the locket teetering on the ledge as if it might fall at any moment. Will the raven hold on? Will it care if it is dropped into the infinite emptiness below? The pose in which the raven stands and the way it has been rendered makes me feel like there is a gentle consciousness of these weighty subjects and that, metaphorically, love can be saved in spite of all odds. "

Lord that woman makes my work sound so good.

My BlackBird series is about empathy, the rawest most vulnerable places within us and how easily they can be harmed.
The items are symbols of love (locket), spirituality(rosary), commitment (wedding band), and hope (key).
The blackbird symbolises a lack of empathy, the raven doesn`t care about or even know the harm he may have caused by his theft.
He merely sought to satisfy his own desire for the shiny thing, a thing that really means nothing to him but perhaps everything to the one who has lost it.
We all hang by a thread and our souls, for want of a better word, are most often damaged by those who never really give us a second thought.....or do they?