An Early Fascination with Light
![Image](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeYSxRftjbuRRUrSeWh_ruMzAyI16ubsZy00jU9v8nFNbYOZc8hwJobllH8aBpl6EKqhyFL78tGFg7Y9A1X6EuDNpP2HSjPiZRnQEpZFCJdTJv5jhFOpiEiUSgeg1phwFOxxmL2AYcmC0f/w640-h475/InlandII-20-45x60-72.jpg)
Philip Koch, Inland II, oil on canvas, 45 x 60 inches, 2020 Paintings are about what fascinates us. People often remark my paintings celebrate light and shadow. This began for me in an unusual way. When I was very young my family lived in a deep forest on the northernmost border of the US. I confessed to my father I worried about getting lost. He smiled and told me I could find my way by studying the sunlight- that we lived so far north the shadows cast by the trees pretty much always pointed north. I was charmed by the idea and found it worked. Now years later the idea that the light keeps us from getting lost seems an apt metaphor for living.