I have read all the wonderful comments you have written about my previous Christmas image that I uploaded yesterday, and I want to thank you all so much. Artists are such a nice bunch. You have proven that to be the case. I thank you!!! I have decided to upload another photomontage using Christmas photos from 2006. Here are the decorations from the other side of the room. This will give you a better understanding of what I did . Below, I will explain the rationale behind these decorations. In their original form, each one of these images is 3 megapixels in size. This lends itself quite well for a thorough explanation of this décor. En tout cas, je vais tenter de vous l’expliquer. What I have here is a journey…a “color” journey, that is. This journey starts with the Christmas tree, travels around the room introducing more colors, and ends at the tree once again. The first thing a guest sees coming through the front door is the white (and pink…had to do it) Christmas tree; and one is hit with all that whiteness. As one crosses the archway into the living room, your eyes go immediately to the huge white poinsettias atop my Baby Grand. They are there to act like radars. Which is the reason why they are white (besides being huge); and the reason their centers are gold is because gold is going to be prominent here and, along with red, will take us back to white. I made the white poinsettias using white wire hangers and lady’s white knee high stockings, thanks to my wife Claire. Here atop the piano, various colors are introduced; all closely tied together using gold. I cannot dwell much on this. If you look at that angel at the corner of the piano you will notice that this is the tying element between the piano and the fireplace mantel. This angel should truly go with the Nativity grouping resting on the mantel. Yet, I decided to place her on the piano, but facing the Nativity for continuity. The color spreads half way down the top of the mantel to the right as you face the fireplace. Here the ornaments are not that colorful and white starts to gradually be the prominent color once more. There is more to be explained about the top of the mantel, but I could not fit any more photos on this image or they would all look like thumbnails. :o) As we reach the far right of the fireplace mantel, the color is basically white with touches of red (hey…you mix red and white and you get pink! LOL!) I added “crystal” garlands here because these crystal garlands are also found on the tree itself. Red here makes a beeline to the floor from the top of the white vase to the red gift half way down, to then land on the floor in the form of the red and white small gift. Of course, to the right of the pyramid of Christmas gifts wrapped in white we find the Christmas tree itself. This pyramid of white Christmas gift boxes is echoed at the base of the tree where I place some of them (uploaded yesterday) to tie the entire thing nicely. Basically, this Christmas décor is a song using color instead of music. There is harmony here, and just as in music which most likely begins with the tonic of a particular scale and through the course of the piece of music it travels to other scales using what is called pivot chord, so does this décor. My tonic here is white. Gold is my pivot chord. That is why I used it along with white at the center of the poinsettias, at the feet of the angel (where is well anchored), towards the right of the mantel and pouring out of the white vase all the way to the right of the mantel. The use of gold to wrap the Christmas gifts should now be obvious. Even though I introduced other colors, at one point (the center of the mantel) we begin heading towards the tonic by weeding out the other colors (it is like taking a sip of water to cleanse our palette before trying a different taste). So you see? There IS a method to my madness. :o) Again, thank you for stopping by and for any comments present and past. Clemente