Merry Christ Mass ++++

Having trekked into the Christmas wonderland of Midtown Manhattan twice yesterday, I was inundated with striking & arresting visual engagements of light color and form, constantly in motion...as if I were looking through the lense of a microscope so powerful I could observe the vibrations of all things. The human eye moves intuitively through compositions, picking up first on the white and light hues, ascending through mid-values on into the dark and black hues where the eye finds comfort. Amidst the holiday lights, fixtures, hurried crowds in their multi colored coats contrasting with the sea of black coats, I thought of the challenge that would be involved in converting this imagery's hues in all their variation to a grayscale or black and white composition. Value clarifies space and form via shading, pattern & texture, the imparting of emotion and the power off emphasis. But with any resemblance captured in a drawing or painting, there is the reliance upon perception and thus the metaphysics & transubstantiation of the artist and the artistic process.