My Art Book

Reach New Heights, Gain a New Perspective (City of Lights)

Drawn 12-28-15

This was based on a true scene, and I tried my best to draw it out digitally since it's too dark to be captured with a camera. And it really can never be captured in any way, but this is the closest I can draw it to what it actually looks like. This is the view you get in the partings between the trees when you're driving up the mountain, looking down on all the street lights below. I used three different shades, pure white, tangerine, and an orangish-yellow, for the lights, and did them in all sorts of sizes. I really wanted to show you guys how beautiful this scene is. I know it can never be captured, but that's part of its beauty, and the thrill of being able to see it again. I saw this on December 21st, 2014, December 24, 2015, and December 27, 2015. All three times I was listening to Monstercat when I went by. The most recent time, however, I saw it for much longer since it wasn't foggy, and I tried my best to commemorate what it was like last year by listening to the same music I was listening to then, Monstercat 020 - Altitude. I got to see it for a whole five minutes this time, and I listened to Astronaut - Feronia and Droptek - Killing Time while I saw it because those are two tracks I associate with the experience from last year, especially Killing Time. I actually thought the view was gone early on, but then we came around a curve and I got to see it deeper than ever before, and I was straining to look out my window because it was so gorgeous and making me so happy. This is something you can only see when you're up at a decent height above sea level, and it helped me gain a new perspective on those songs from Altitude last year. So I'm so glad to honor both the experiences I had with it this year and last year with this commemorative drawing. Who knows, maybe I saw it many times before that too, but just never noticed the beauty back then because I never looked for it. What I saw then was just the plain old view out the window, a longing to be home as I drifted off to sleep. But I have a new mind now. I see the beauty in every step along the journey. Because I know the journey is what counts. And maybe that's why, now, I see a whole city set into the calm scenery of the darkness. A gentle chorus singing, we are the lights, the lights that stand through the dark. I know you only live once, and sleep can wait when there are adventures on your mind. I see things in clarity. I live in color, plentiful with beauty and rich with deepness. And it's Monstercat which helped me gain that perspective.