SKIES | Over Lahaina
I WAS NUDGED to create this set of SKIES in January of 2023. By this time, I was aware that my SKIES series were not only about phenomena unfolding in my mind— like clouds forming in the sky—but also about seeing what's on the horizon... and even beyond it. Despite their beauty, I was wary of these images. They suggested a view from water of an island... that appeared to be on fire. Plumes of smoke were rising from bright orange blaze-like shapes. Farther away, an orange glow filled the late-afternoon sky. Yellow and orange flame-like tongues licked upwards in gusts of wind. As I do with a lot of my work, I decided to hide these. I showed them to no one. I put all the images in a folder named, "SKIES | Island Fire". Months later, when images of the fires in Maui saturated the media, I looked back at these images and saw an uncanny, inexplicable resemblance. Compare them to the news images yourself. When it's sincere and straight from the source, art can be at once absolutely beautiful and utterly terrifying.
