One of the more powerful paintings dealing with the self in this exhibition is David Linn’s The Gift, 2003. In this painting, the artist articulates elements of his passage through life. While at first the scene appears to involve two men, it actually portrays the same person engaged in a classic debate with his soul. The rocky terrain is a recurrent environment in Linn’s work and symbolizes the often shifting and challenging ground we traverse–"It is the world," explains Linn, "where stones of decision and consequence lie in uneasy balance." The part of the man that stands on stony ground offers a fragment of that terrain to another part of himself who, standing on soft ground, is distracted by a plant. The stone is an invitation to pursue a difficult, but meaningful path in life. The plant perhaps symbolizes the distractions that divert him from his true mission. This painting is not about conventional aspects of love, but about loving oneself and the relationship between, as the artist relates, "different facets of our souls, our psyches, and the internal battles that ensue as we attempt to discover and walk a true path."
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