[/caption] This is the standard what-this-painting-means disclaimer: These are the events and thoughts that led me to paint this piece. I do not think however, that this in any way means other interpretations or meanings seen by others are not valid or real. I think symbolic information resonates its history in a subconscious way. Which parts become conscious is different in each person. Ok, enough said, this painting entitled "What I Know," is a self portrait I painted as a visual expression of what I wanted to accomplish by starting my business. I love to draw and paint and make images. (though on a different note, for another topic, painting is also hard and frustrating, but somehow, in a good way) When I paint, and the work just builds up in the closet, it doesn't feel right. It seems a natural part of a paintings life-cycle is to go out into the world, find an audience, and effect said audiences' life. In a way, starting the business was the paintings' idea as much as it was mine. I started this business in the hope that my images could find their place in the world and I could do what makes me happiest--for a living. This painting is me creating my business, my life, my reality, the way that I want it. This painting is me taking "what I know" and using it to make my world. That is what the ball of light is: the idea of, the vision of, my life as a successful artist. All the threads coming into it, and connected to it, are the connections one makes with people and the universe to weave ones' reality, in this case my dream. As the dream is woven in to reality, the light burns brighter, and joy, happiness, beauty, and magic are attracted to it. These are the hummingbirds. "Hummingbird can fly in any direction-- up, down, backwards, and forwards. Hummingbirds can also hover in one spot and appear motionless." (p. 213*) Hummingbirds are magical creatures able to move is such a radical way they seem transmute and transform the space around them as they move. Creating one's life as one wants it is a kind of alchemy, transforming the space around oneself, and it is freedom, the ability to move any way one desires, to create whatever one wants. I was always qouted Joesph Campbell as a child and told I should "follow my bliss. Hummingbird is attracted to beauty, and follows the tracks of a soul following its bliss. "Because of their magical qualities, Hummingbird feathers have been used for a millennium in the making of love charms. It is said that Hummingbird conjures love as no other medicine does, and that Hummingbird feathers open the heart. Without an open and loving heart, you can never taste the nectar and pure bliss of life." (213*) Of course I also hope that when other people look at this painting they don't see me. I hope they see themselves and the possibility to create their own life as they want it, their own dream, their own vision. *Both quotes are from Medicine Cards - The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals by Jamie Sams and David Carson