Storms Splitting Water into Light is based on a plein air drawing made at Eagle Lake in the Adirondacks. The lake was large enough that I could see a small thunderstorm as a single entity as it crossed the water. In response I began to draw storms as if they were individuals, zooming across the earth’s surface pursuing their own agendas. When I was in school, I studied biology and I was warned by my professors to never anthropomorphize the natural world, since it might affect the objectivity of my observations. But as an artist, I’ve become interested in how assigning human qualities to animals or natural events can be a means for creating empathy between humans and the living world. The title, Storms Splitting Water into Light, emphasizes the power of the moment; rainbows are pretty, but they are also displays of the ability of water to divide white light into discrete wavelengths at an enormous scale.