Kate Jordahl: Clouds

Kate Jordahl: Clouds

Images of trees, vast bodies of water, and sunsets have the power to capture the imagination. Peaceful cloudscapes and serene vistas have a vitality of their own and the ability to calm the mind. Trees, clouds, rocks, and mountain peaks are rich in symbolic meaning. Humankind is as dependent on the environment for psychological and spiritual fulfillment as it is for natural resources and raw materials.

Through her travels to nearby and distant destinations, photographer Kate Jordahl incorporates landscapes to examine sacred spaces—their physical structure, atmosphere, and symbolism. For Jordahl, any environment that leaves a spiritual impression is sacred. In Clouds, Jordahl’s images from New Zealand, Western Australia, Hawaii, and California manifest a sense of magic and wonder. This exhibition presents cloudscapes as tranquil places for reflection and calm repose. Jordahl’s photographs invite one to muse on the intersection of art and nature and the peaceful experience that only cloudscapes can afford.

Kate Jordahl is professor of photography at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California. She is co-director at PhotoCentral, in Hayward, California. Her photographs are in numerous collections, including the Bibliothéque Nationale de France, Paris; University of Texas, Dallas; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California; and the Yosemite Museum, Yosemite National Park, California. Jordahl has led photography workshops in France, Italy, China, Japan, and the United States, and has been an artist-in-residence in Yosemite National Park and in the Polar Arts Program in Greenland. Her awards include a Gold Medal for Best of Show in the PubWest Book Design Awards, a Silver Medal in Prix de Paris; the Independent Publishers Book Award for Searching for True North; and a Silver Award Photography and a Bronze Award Art in the PubWest Book Design Awards for Native American Ceremonial Dancers. She is represented by Themes+Projects, San Francisco. 

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