Seeing through Clouds

Depths: Appreciating Art pt. 4

One of the best aspects of West Michigan is the clouds. I have been chewing on the clouds, mulling them in my mind, for the past few years in my own work–they don’t taste like cotton candy. Much of it stems from watching them sail by in my hammock during the lockdown.

For those in cloudless dry climates, there is art that can help your empty skies:

Nimbus, ongoing series
by Berndnaut Smilde

Using smoke machines and water vapor, Smilde saturates the air then puffs great clouds of smoke mixed with water for just a few seconds. Enough time to snap a photo.

This is the final installment of my appreciating art posts. This series is like a cloud formation in my mind, fading away. It started with three questions that you should ask yourself as you experience any work of art—from a painting to a plaster cast, a garden to a gory horror film, high art to low.

As a Re-minder, here are the three questions:

What do I see?

What does it remind me of?

What does all of that mean?

The first post introduced these questions. The second post delved into the second question–skipping over the first. The third post addressed the third question. Now I must end back at the beginning and speak on seeing.