In June 1980 I decided to expand the subrealist concept and plotted fifteen canvases to complement the code. I still have the plan drawn up in a grid on an old cardboard sheet from a 24x20 Kodak film box – with practised signatures in one corner – what a wanker I must have been. A primary feature was my dialogue on CONTRAST – between hard or soft / chaos by order / lines and curves / etc and etc. Along with elements of colour and contour as learned in my photolithographical training.
  As a child I was obssessed with which physical properties we humans did not own: amphibianism, metamorphosis, hybernation, chromatophoric camouflage, autotomic regeneration, gyroscopic balance, echolocation, armored membranes, feathers and flight – was the ultimate action. Every creature selected for this sequence represents one or more of these themes.
  There is a serial drama behind this piece – regarding a dispute on proprietary provenance. The original canvas was collar commandeered in 1987 by a passing lady against instructions who twenty years later claimed absolute ownership with downright dudgeon, and ramifications. She’d given the canvas to easy Ian Gilroy a later drummer in the Swingers band who had sold it on. For fifty lousy bucks… or so my investigative team discovered. I decided on a repaint and publish here the latest, albeit unfinished, version. This was a whole lot bigger schemozzle… better leery left… for another dog day.