This is part of a body of work I created at an artist colony in Nebraska after living in Morocco. The works are my attempt to comprehend some of my experiences there and integrate them into my world and life view. In Arabic, Khamsa means five. It also can refer to the five fingers of the hand of Fatima, which is a symbol of protection in Islam. It is usually presented as a strong, striking image that scares away the evil eye. In this piece I am playing with making the hand a gentler, fluttering protector and reinforcing its multi-layered and all-encompassing nature in the circle patterns around the edge. The script says khamsa. All of my works contain imperfections; it is my way of building intimacy between the viewer and my self - a sort of inside joke as well as a reminder that these works are created by a fallible human being.