By avoiding detailed descriptions in his artwork, McKay helps activate and expand the imagination of the viewers. His painstaking execution of the misty atmosphere is one of the main theme of the paintings.

The TAO says all things come from being and being comes from nonbeing.  McKay’s paintings are white paintings. White denotes “emptiness.” White as noncolor transforms into a symbol of nonbeing, yet doesn’t mean “nothingness” or “energy-less.” However, in McKay’s paintings this emptiness is being filled with the content of indirect reflected etherial color, creating a forceful energy for communication with the universal.  Seen in a transitional state, this creative power of the etherial filling and instilling power in this emptiness delineates the boundlessness by blending with the subtle reflections. His avoiding any detailed descriptions, helps to activate the imaginations of its viewers. Additionally, the paintings seems to emphasize the empty space between the lines rather than the lines themselves. The lines are being fused into the depth of whiteness. Far from signifying a state of nonbeing, the white empty space suggests the countless lines that float behind the painted surface. The exquisitely soft atmosphere is filled with a subtle movement that leaves viewers’ senses drifting  in that space. Indeed, one of the painting’s most important features is the way its mists evoke the boundless, floating world of the imagination. Our senses are drawn into the paintings, where they are left to sway back and forth with the imaginative power of our wandering spirit.