Joezabel, I agree. One of the main arguments our graduate study group had on author intent was that, more often than the critic would like to acknowledge, the author's entire purpose was just to tell a ripping good yarn. I think many artists are the same way. I know that most of the time when I begin a Poser piece I start out by cruising through my folders and looking for bits and pieces I haven't played with recently, or ever, and fitting them together to see how it works. Usually it is only after I've mostly finished the piece that I have any sense of story for it. I've been thinking my way through a piece I want to create based on the concept of Plato's Cave and the reflections on the wall, the whole concept that we can never know the true form of something, only the inferior shadow of it, and how to make that into the visual I see in my minds eye. It'll probably be done very tongue-in-cheek, but I have to figure out the lighting and everything...and I don't have a good cave yet. Author intent? Critical Analysis? Is a cigar only a cigar?