The idea for this work originally came from a contest notification I saw on DeviantArt. The theme was ‘Good vs Evil’ and the requirement was to make an illustration based on that. I tried out some minimalist approaches for this which could stand out in strong contrast to the ultra-detailed submissions already done. What I wanted was something quite simple and by no means violent. However as time went by, I became more busy with other projects around and couldn’t really make a final piece for submission.Months later, I had bought a new iMac and was planning to do something inspired by it’s design. Then I saw this old, incomplete piece for the contest and got the idea. Good and bad were represented as inseperable and seamlessly integrated into one by means of red and blue, two naturally contrasting colours. Blue is associated usually with heaven and purity, and Red oftwn with rage and violence. So I thought these two would be perfect when combined with a neutral grey background space providing a backdrop.

About this time every year for the past 30 years my Mum's apricot tree shares it's bounty with us. We bag them up and take them to work, we give them away at church, we put them on the roadside with a huge sign saying "help yourself". We bake crumbles and muffins and make purees and sauces and inevitabley get the tummy ache from too much eating off the tree. This step ladder has been around since before I can remember. It was brought with us from England in 1981 and has seen the decoration of many rooms and been used to harvest apples and apricots for over 30yrs. Now it is in retirement, replaced by safety requirements by a shiny metal one. This one though always comes out for harvest time. It's been well loved and well used and seen life in our family and harvest time would not be the same without it. Happy Bench Monday everyone!