Ripley Whiteside

This series of watercolor and gouache paintings are based on views glimpsed from airplane windows. I am compelled by even the most humdrum views from this vantage point: it is exhilarating to take in great expanses with a glance. How we use land, how we connect ourselves, and how we are shaped by everything around us is made visible. Atmosphere is only observable at a distance and is revealed at 30,000 feet, with pollution and climate factoring greatly in our ability to see it. In our era of accelerated global warming, this barrier of gases that allows our planet to support life feels threateningly tenuous. Making these observations from a window seat of a giant tube propelled by exhaust, I am also abashed like the Walrus eating oysters in Through the Looking-Glass. Nothing makes me feel more terrestrial, and I get the sense these are views I am not supposed to see.