May 18, 2025

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

Early, bright morning, no high humidity to throw a wet blanket, bit of a breeze, it all makes for a clear slate no matter what the day before brought. Most of the time anyway.

The sun rising in the East is also promising for artists who absorb light as inspiration, maybe like Edward Hopper, the famed American painter, who said to the effect that all he wanted to do “was paint sunlight on the wall of a house.”

There’s black and white to such reveal on a wall, on a face, on the sidewalk, off a tree. Light or dark, and that makes thinking less complex. Who wants to ponder in the morning anyway? It will come quickly enough later in the day. That’s when black and white becomes shades of gray and then all manner of color.

So, the daylight hours begin in sharp light, and as the human motor starts and revs up, the kaleidoscope of living kicks in. Except, of course, when there is fog early on, or snow, or rain. Yet even diffused light gives way to some sort of focus.

“Sunlight on the wall of a house.” No wonder Hopper painted it. So many stories.

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

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