A blackened marble column forms the basis of this image – it had fallen off of a tomb, and landed in front of the words defining the scope of a life. There was little color in this image to begin with – only a touch of greenish moss. By converting it to black and white, the image becomes more symbolic and less real. The moss vanishes -- the emphasis changes to the repeating diagonal grooves in the column that abstract the scene and draw the eye into the image.