CUMULONIMBUS is a towering cloud associated with thunderstorms and some of the most hazardous weather an aircraft can encounter. Built by strong updrafts, it can contain severe turbulence, lightning, hail, icing, heavy precipitation, and dangerous wind shear. Its vertical scale is part of what makes it so serious: a cumulonimbus can rise from relatively low cloud bases to extreme altitudes, sometimes reaching into the lower stratosphere and forming the familiar anvil top. For pilots, it is less a cloud than a warning system in visible form.

From an aviation perspective, CUMULONIMBUS is compelling because it represents a hard limit. This is one of the atmospheric conditions that demands respect rather than mastery. Pilots do not fly through a mature cumulonimbus if they can avoid it. In the context of a business jet window, the word cuts directly through the polished calm of the cabin and reminds the viewer that flight takes place beside forces much larger than the aircraft itself.

Art historically, the work is interesting because the term is both scientific and monumental. It names a specific cloud type, but it also carries the scale and drama associated with the history of the sublime. On a mirror, CUMULONIMBUS overlays the viewer’s reflection with a word denoting atmospheric volatility, making inner weather and external weather briefly interchangeable. On a sky painting, the phrase shifts again. It interrupts beauty with consequence. What might first appear as atmosphere, light, or distant weather is suddenly named as force: vertical, unstable, and potentially violent. The painting remains seductive, but the word changes the terms of looking. The sky is no longer only a view. It becomes a structure of risk.

Edition
Individually produced work. Mounted to float on a shaped panel finished in automotive paint. Signed and dated on an affixed label. Accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity and embedded RFID authentication chip.

Materials
Automotive paint, acrylic, polymer  and varnish on mirror, mounted with sealed engineered wood fiber panels. Executed with proprietary airbrush and silkscreen techniques.

Year
2026

Dimensions
29 x 20.5 x 3.25 in. (74 x 52 x 8 cm)