A man poses for a photo with a life size cutout of Pope Francis at Bicentennial Park where the pontiff celebrated Mass for an estimated half-million people, in Quito, Ecuador, Tuesday, July 7, 2015. Francis told an estimated half-million people gathered for the Mass that in a world divide by wars, violence and individualism, Catholics should be “builders of unity”, bringing together hopes and ideals of their people. (Photo by Ana Buitron/AP Photo)

An installation with a copy of a tank is seen at a villager's house in the village of Vits, Belarus November 8, 2016. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

A boy swims in Chao Phraya River as he helps to place a Krathong, or a “floating basket”, in the water amid a yearly festival during which rafts of neatly folded banana leaves, decorated with flowers, candles and incense, are offered to thank the water goddess for good luck and for using her water to grow crops and support all life, in Bangkok, Thailand on November 8, 2022. (Photo by Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters)

Chinese artist Kong Ning walks in her costume made of hundreds of orange plastic blowing horns during her art performance raising awareness of the hazardous smog in front of the Drum tower in a historical part of Beijing on a very polluted day December 7, 2015. Kong, whose works include themes related to China's air pollution problem, named her new performance “The Orange Horns Bride Marries the Blue Sky” and presented it dressed in orange, the colour of the second highest pollution alert level issued again in Beijing as hazardous smog blankets the capital. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Light is the sole reason why life exists. It provides us with warmth; it allows us to see; it nourishes all the living things on this planet. Many painters, especially the masters of Old Renaissance Period, have recognized the importance of light and its intimate connection with nature and life itself. In their paintings they gave tribute to light, giving the impression that their paintings had a light source hidden within them. Al Hogue, the artist who created the paintings that you see before you, has studied their techniques for many years. As time went by, light permeated not only his paintings by also his life, becoming his sole philosophy.

The love padlocks, called cadenas d’amour, multiplied until there were thousands of love tokens on the bridge, each engraved with a message of love. (Photo by Charles Platiau/Reuters)

In this photo taken on Sunday, February 15, 2015 a girl runs away from a “Mamuxarro” during the carnival, in the small town of Unanu, northern Spain. In the northern Spanish ancient village of Unamu, people dress up as “Mamuxarro”, folkloric figures in white with a red sash and a metal mask to cover their faces as they pursue townsfolk with sticks. According to custom, their “victims” (usually young women) must kneel and kiss the mamuxarro’s knee after he makes the sign of the cross on their forehead. (Photo by Alvaro Barrientos/AP Photo)

Cuban girls dressed as nurses and a lizard wait for their turn to dance during a visit by the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington in Havana July 13, 2015. The choir made its first appearance on July 12, 2015 in Cuba as part of a tour that will include a dozen concerts in the context of the restoration of relations between the island and the United States. (Photo by Enrique de la Osa/Reuters)