An exhibit at the Coconino Center for the Arts in Flagstaff celebrates artistic expressions of weather with more than 100 meteorology-themed pieces from 60 contributors. They were selected by a panel of local artists with the help of KNAU meteorologist Lee Born.
He and program director Julie Comnick joined KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny at the exhibit.
So, Lee, you brought your meteorology expertise to the exhibit, had you ever done anything like that before?
Lee Born: I’ve never done anything like that before as far as an art show and being asked to be involved with it…. I don’t have an artist’s eye but sitting down with the artists and being invited to go through pieces and talk about them on intellectual level and an artistic level was a great experience.
Why do an art exhibit about weather? I think we think of weather as this kind of prosaic thing that we all deal with. Why is it something that also inspires art?
Julie Comnick: A juried exhibition like this invites the artists as well as the audience to think about how visual artwork can expand a subject or a theme, in this case, weather…. Especially in Flagstaff and the Southwest, so many artists are already dealing with themes of the sky, whether it’s the night sky or the monsoon weather patterns, as an essential part of their artwork.
Lee Born: And there’s so many different mediums expressed here… There’s textiles, there’s Native American maracas with Native American meteorological storytelling on them, there’s beautiful oil paintings here with grand pictures and landscapes of the Southwest. But it’s very interesting to see how the meteorology and the art interlap and what it brings out in people.
I know it’s a tall order but can you both pick a favorite to highlight?
Lee Born: I have many favorite pieces here. I walk around, and it’s hard to pick one favorite. Of course I’m partial to Shonto, a friend and an amazing artist, his piece right around the corner here…
So this one is by Shonto Begay and it’s called “Beneath the Crowning Moisture.” Take a stab at describing it for us.
Lee Born: It seems to be a young Native American boy in the red clay of the reservation in a puddle with a raven silhouette in the puddle, kind of staring up in the sky and pondering – who knows what.
Clearly a lot of local artists inspired by the local landscapes. But you have artists from all over the country, is that right?
Julie Comnick: That’s right. I wanted to highlight one of the projects that the jurors awarded, which is an artist from southern Arizona who created a piece called “Monsoon Station,” and when you’re in the galley, it just looks like it’s a computer monitor. But it’s an audio piece, and what it does, it connects directly with a weather station that's right near the Coconino Center for the Arts, and it responds sonically to any changes in the atmosphere. So when the monsoon clouds start to build in the afternoon or it starts to rain, there are these sonic effects. There can be chimes, bells, really soothing sounds. Then you run outside and you see that’s actually what’s happening outside, so it’s an interesting interpretation of our actual weather patterns through art.
That’s amazing. And it’s quiet right now because we’ve got a clear sky outside…. Why is it important, do you think, that we talk about these concepts—weather, meteorology—in this more artistic expression? Sometimes we approach this more through a scientific lens. Why is it important to bring in this idea of art?
Lee Born: I mean, art makes life better, science makes life better. Part of what I talked about on the opening night is where meteorology and art overlap but also how far the science has come over the years. Meteorology is definitely leaps and bounds from where it was ten, twenty, fifty years ago. Art, on the other hand, is timeless.
Julie Comnick: I think what Lee says—I think both the art and the science are a lot about interpretation, that’s what makes it science and that’s what makes it art, so weather seems like a natural place for the two to merge.
So you can come see this exhibit at the Coconino Center for the Arts in Flagstaff through September 28. Lee Born, Julie Comnick, thank you so much for speaking with me today.
