The Knowledge (or as the painting suggests “Knowledge is a Strength”) pushes the self-referential a bit further. The artist is seen face-on. His self-portrait assumes the confidence of a painter whose style has decidedly and visibly gained in maturity, as is obvious in the balanced composition and the rich harmonious colour palette. The cityscape and city dwellers form the background of a more important, more personal, if not self-centred, narrative. A different earing from the previous painting bears the letter B, the artist’s initial. It is shaped as a light bulb. Not just the symbol of an idea, but that of enlightenment, of knowledge as the title reminds us. And this knowledge that the artist possesses is that of painting, a skill which outlet is the “JB Gallery”, that has also enabled the artist to travel, hence the “Jack Bell” tour bus. “My painting is not dead” reads a sign held by a person reminding Keith Haring’s iconic symbol-like figures.