The Cloud Makers

 

After the rain, Albuquerque
- July 21, 2025, 3:05 pm, DS.

(Sand spins into mountains,

Mountains spin into streams,

Streams spin into fountains;

Clouds are made of these.)

- The unpublished chant-like addendum to the poem, Nature's Signature, found here.

"The extensive and more personalized symbolism of clouds appearing in landscape painting at the turn of the twentieth century reflected the cognitive uncertainty we experience in relation to clouds, in their constant variability and instability, and the dictatorship of the imagination, which allows only a subjective description of the phenomenon."

- A quote from the excellent article: Cloudscapes over the Baltic Sea–Cloud Motifs in Finnish, Swedish, German, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, and Latvian Symbolic Landscape Painting around 1900. The highlighted text acknowledging our "cognitive uncertainty" regarding clouds really resonated with me, but not merely for the reasons described. For someone who has invested a great deal of time watching them, the uncertainty lies in the method of their creation. While, logically one cannot accept intelligence is involved, it is also difficult to accept, in some cases, that clouds are fashioned merely by the random fluctuations of air currents. That is, unless we redefine our concept of "random," (made, done, happening, or chosen without method or conscious decision)... or, maybe, come to the understanding that, in nature, "random" includes patterns & processes not, yet, fully understood.

The random appearance of a cicada in a cloud shot.
Cellphone photo,  August 25, 2025, 4:28 pm, DS.

The cloud introducing this post is one of the exceptional clouds.  It possesses an almost unworldly presence. Perhaps, this is due to the subdued coloring of the sky that day after it had rained. It has a dreamlike quality. What is especially intriguing about it, however, is that it's a cloud which is in the process of transforming. Moreover, it isn't isolated; it appears to be one element in a peculiar circle of clouds. (See below)

An odd ring of clouds - July 21, 2025, 3:07 pm, DS.

You may not recognize it at first. It is the cloud on the far right, which, in my eyes, appears to have grown a human head seen in profile! The rest have no recognizable shape but they, too, are odd, if not downright weird. The small dark cloud (towards the left) is a prime example. What exactly is that square-shape below it?

Now, I do not manipulate or edit the content of my photos in any way. They appear as nothing more than what they are, but, if this photo were an actual painting - and, in ways, it almost looks like one - we might assume it was painted by an imaginative artist... a Surrealist of Nature, (if this wasn't an oxymoron). In other words, and the point I'm attempting  to make is that, while the odd group of clouds was not manufactured, they seem to have arose from an imagination.

Personally, I think this is what attracts me to clouds... a weird sense of witnessing something imaginative where no "imagination" should logically exist. This represents another cause for the "cognitive uncertainty" mentioned earlier, but, for a visual artist it represents something else as well... that is, a conundrum: what defines art when the source of an intriguing creation is not merely inhuman, but is logically without consciousness? In this case, we might say it's a Beauty of Nature/Nature of Beauty kind of thing, but, ultimately, this does not tell us enough.

So, who or what are the Cloud Makers? I doubt it's possible to know. But, the question is tantalizing and will be carried into a future post: The Imaginarium.

Clouds, Time & Spiraling Planes (revised August 19)

 

Credit: Jinik Renatus, Jinikal Art.

(Update: September, 9, 2025. A new, and even better video from Jinikal. This one features amusing little pentagrams! See: Cosmic Joy: The Infinite Playgrounds.)

It occured to me recently that in the earlier days of blogging, I made a point of trying to feature new digital artists on Trans-D, a habit I somewhat abandoned after the genre grew to such a degree I could no longer keep track of it. And, I can only marginally keep track of the burgeoning AI video artists; new artists seem to appear literally every day.* But, every now and then, a video makes an appearance that resonates on a personal level - call it kismet - and, well,  Jinik's In a World Where Time and Space are Distorted is one of those videos.

Don't be fooled by the title. Time and space are not "distorted." In terms of spatial effects, they are either intentionally (or intuitively) orchestrated and organized around the laws of pentagonal phi and/or the Fibonacci series,** and best of all, Jinik created some fantastic spiraling clouds! Regarding time, spiral clocks  (also here) and time spirals are all the rage in cyberspace, everywhere from scientific circles to Fantasy Fandom worlds.

As it happens, spiraling clouds are not unusual in the real world. I see them every day, albeit on a smaller scale. Inset left (above) is an example I shot earlier this summer but often the golden spiral's signature paisley shape can be found on a much larger scale. (Below is a detail of a photo found in a previous cloud post.)

A cloud in desperate need of a Phi-shell!

Clouds and spirals? Can't get any better! Thank you, Jinik Renatus, your video made my day!

(My apologies for all the typos and delays with the text... hopefully, now corrected!)

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* I have been featuring them on Mac's memorial, with the latest appearing on this post... and his birthday post.

** I want to be perfectly clear about my use of mathematical terms regarding art here. That is, while phi may, indeed, be mathematically present in a work of art, the exact math is not required for it to fit the criteria of possessing the Golden Meme; best described as a shape, sound, or movement based on a mathematical ratio present in the geometry of the pentagram - in itself, a fractal - that is so perfect in its mysterious beauty and/or powerful efficiency that it might be described as Divine, or Golden. Regarding space-time, the Golden Meme represents a key to understanding the eternal.

(Note: The Golden Meme as a theory and an artistic investigation is mine alone and is not currently recognized as valid by any accredited source. It is also in its infancy. In any case, for me, it serves as an organizing center for the pentagonal phi material I've been amassing for 6 years. See: Reflections on Water, or the golden snail shell on the sidebar.)

 

The Philosopher's Dove (with Addendum)

 

The enigmatic glyph of a pigeon poised in flight, Albuquerque - one frame of a cellphone video - June 2, 2025, DS.

A pigeon is considered feral when one member of its line has, at some point in time, severed ties with (human-produced) domesticity.

Pigeons - rock doves - are free agents in human cities. Huddling together in small groups high up in the rafters of old, abandoned buildings, they are quiet, gentle, trusting creatures. We know them mostly by the snapping sound of their beating wings.

Time-stamped: August 1, 2025, 6:22 pm.

They are essentially travelers, vagrants and refugees and are generally despised (and exterminated) by property owners. After all, pigeons do not pay rent, nor do they sing for their supper. They search for seeds that have fallen on the pavement, trodden by human feet, or flattened beneath the wheels of a driverless car.

Time-stamped: July 31, 2025, 1:19 pm.

But, the sky glorifies those in flight and, in flight, the rock dove is as fleet as any bird.

Always, the sky, whispering in silent, Sylphid syllables, welcomes its feathered acolytes back into its cool, incorruptible embrace.

(Continued below the break...)