Not too long ago I had a dream in which I woke up on a beach that was located a little ways outside of a black and white fantasy city. In the dream, I got up, walked away from the water and toward the city and had many adventures therein. I was curious about the dream though, so I looked up some of the symbolism. I was especially fascinated by the symbol the beach supposedly represented. It is said that if you dream of being on a beach and are looking out toward the water, or walking toward the water, it represents a longing for the past or for a dream world that can never be, basically meaning that you are stuck. If you are looking toward the land, or walking away from the water, it means that you are looking toward your future with optimism and good will. I thought the idea of that would make an interesting painting. Here we have two sisters that represent these two outlooks. The one in black longs for and mourns her past. She holds a raven because they can sometimes be harbingers of death or stagnancy... and then there's "never more" and all that good stuff. The one in white faces her future and holds an owl to represent wisdom and knowledge. Both sisters are blindfolded because when one is dealing with time in either direction, it is impossible to truly see it for what it is, was, or will be. They must trust in their bird familiars to show them the way. The model for the sisters is the ever wonderful *mizzd-stock. Other images used in creating this came from sxc and clipart.com.