Mountains of the Spirit

This guy I did over the weekend in Madison while watching HP (harry potter for those not in with the lingo) and changed pretty drastically throughout. The original idea was to fill the white part on the left completely with the symbols, creating this "sketchbook doodles" type of look; A jumbled mess of ideas and symbols. But throughout the process, the jumble just wasn't cuttin it for me. It just wasn't looking very carefree....way too forced. So I blocked a bunch of them out and went for something else that I think worked out well.

The symbols are meant to represent a civilization forming. The buildings rising, the symbolism created. The Mountains of the Spirit are in not natural mountains, but temples. Large man-made "mountains" devoted to spiritual health. The color represents that which is being lost through the creation. While the society grows in city, spirit and communication, they fall from nature, the spirit of nature, and the connection with the earth. It's meant to depict that struggle anything faces when change comes. To make room for one, you must leave something to the side. I suppose this piece simply asks...is it worth it? is there a better way?

I spose that answer is left up to all of you.