Willa Downing – Worlds of Wonder: Weather and Other Phenomena

Image Credit: Willa Downing

To make sense of the universe, we use a combination of disparate faculties that give us different forms of insight. As a scientist and artist, Willa Downing views the world through profoundly different lenses. A powerful way of looking at Nature, science can reveal the immense complexity and extravagant beauty of natural phenomena down to the level of atoms and molecules. However, art’s connection is more primeval and evocative. Downing’s work reflects an intellectual and visceral response to the natural world.

Although different, art and science share some characteristics. Both are creative. Fed by a sense of wonder, intuition and imagination play important roles. The ‘spaciousness of wonder’ creates new possibilities for the imagination, new geographies for the creative process.  This body of work, about the weather and other related phenomena, includes box assemblages and mixed media on wood panel. The ‘boxes of curiosity’ are inspired by Cabinets of Curiosity from the16th-17th centuries. Popular before modern science became prominent, these displays of natural and man-made objects reflected the interests, whims and idiosyncrasies of the collector. This spirit of wonder, serendipity and playfulness inform this work. Other pieces in this exhibition include maps of weather phenomena  such as solar wind, heat islands, and storm clouds.  Downing creates a work that accommodates feelings and intellectual ideas, work that will enrich one’s perspective of our natural world.