Safety In Light
I don't expect this picture will be accepted as much as the others. The reason I say this is because, in comparison, it's relatively simple: there are no malevolent beams, no comets or firebirds, just curtains of light draped over several planets. But it looks quite peaceful, especially in contrast to the area on the left.
Behind the light the planets can go about their business, protected from the unattractive space around them. I imagine that from the inside, they only see the light cast around them and are completely unaware of what's beyond. Ignorace is bliss afterall, right? Well that's what they say anyway, and it was that saying which drove me when creating this picture.
For a while it's been my own personal mission to be more honest and truthful when it comes to letting people know what I think or feel about them. It's good for whenever you need to compliment someone, but the downside of being truthful is that you have to also say the bad things; and people will always remember the bad things more easily. The consequence of this social experiment is that I've been labelled quite a shit-stirrer amongst my friends. And in becoming an advocate for letting the truth be known, I've instead become a proponent of general unrest and annoyance.
So can we really be happy by knowing less? My own experience tells me both yes and no, depending upon what it is we're ignoring. Drowned constantly in good news, positive emotions will start to become hollow. Drowned constantly in bad news, it will just make you unhappy. But a balance of both, given happy situations while having known sadness, really adds a quality to that happiness. That's partly the reason I've included such a dull-looking piece of space in the picture; it really makes the rest of it shine with more brilliance than it would have by itself - gotta take the good with the bad, right? There's another saying right there.
The more we know, the less reasons we have to smile, but in the times that we do, it can really be something.