Drawing Air, 2025
Graphite on paper
75 x 115 cm
The atmosphere is a complicated and sprawling subject matter to say the least, and defining it, an imperceptible form of matter which surrounds everything, is like trying to open an invisible can of worms. As a planetary organism, my lungs are filled by it, and when I exhale, I see my breath when it’s cold, fogging a mirror, blowing a bubble, or inflating a party balloon. It’s made of floating clouds, sunsets and sunrises, rain storms, snow flakes and such, all of which tell very different stories about the atmosphere; but there’s much more to this relationship than what does or doesn’t meet the eye.
The image above represents a point of departure where measured percentages of atmospheric gas take shape through value structures, which define spacial relationships between the elements, and begin to describe this seemingly invisible subject matter. But my relationship with the elements aren’t as black and white as a drawing might suggest. In truth, the story begins long before human history, but for the sake of brevity let’s focus on the origin of data within this composition.
Early on, scientific research began to study the atmosphere as a measurable form of matter before humans could leave the ground and explore the avian realm. In 1648, Blaise Pascal and Florin Perier climbed to the top of the Puy de Dome, carrying with them a new scientific instrument invented by Italian scientist, Evangelista Toricelli.1 The instrument was a barometer (image right), which allowed them to measure pressure as they climbed the mountain. Their measurements, which were the first to indicate how pressure decreases with altitude, helped Pascal to develop his theory of a vacuum which existed above the clouds.
Today, images of the ghostly, glowing, plasma-like field of Earth’s atmosphere contrast the black vacuum of space. Yet, the iconic visual perspectives we have from orbit are no more revealing of what the atmosphere contains than a box of surprise chocolate cordials. Obviously chocolate doesn’t float like a gas, but it might make you glow, and perhaps levitate a little, too. The term “gas” was first used by the Flemish chemist, Jan Baptist van Helmont in the 17th century to describe the atmosphere; it comes from khaos, a Greek word meaning “empty space”. The pronunciation of K in Dutch sounds similar to G in English, which is more than likely where the word “gas” originated from. It’s widely held that Helmont learned the term from Paracelsus, a Swiss alchemist, who used khaos when referring to the atmosphere, which he described as the “proper elements of spirits”.2
Considering the atmosphere’s relationship with life on the planet’s surface, Paracelsus’ description is quite fitting, maybe even more so than he originally intended. Glucose, the food plants make through photosynthesis, is molecularly C6-H12-06, which could be thought of as six molecules of water and six Carbon atoms. Similarly, cellulose, which plants use to build their cell walls, is C6-H10-05, and plants contain more nitrogen in their tissue than any other element.4 On average, the atmosphere contains, 75% Nitrogen, 20% Oxygen and 4% water; it’s like the atmosphere is a gaseous state of plant matter, or plant spirits.5 This is no stretch of imagination since there is a direct exchange of atmospheric gas between plants and animals in the process of respiration. Taking the analogy a bit further, the decayed organisms from Earth’s ancient past are the “fossil fuels” of today. They are made of ancient sunlight, earth and atmosphere which has been slowly cycled back into Earth’s surface for billions of years. They are truly the elemental spirits of life.
The first page of my sketchbook (image right) places atmospheric elements into a visual grid where they can be expressed as a percentage. Seventy five cells are marked with Nitrogen, then twenty for Oxygen and so on, until the grid is filled. In the larger composition above, patterns randomly begin to emerge as each cell is assigned a particle. Since the concentration of CO2 is < 1% it presented a problem for the 10×10 grid, as it does for the atmosphere, but in a completely different way. Although, the atmosphere is obviously much more than a random collection of particles; it’s a complex system of energy in constant flux. It’s influenced by radiation from the sun, water vapor, plants, forests, temperature variations, latitude, longitude, solar orbit and an endless multitude of dynamic relationships which define our existence.
Ironically, it would take an enormous scale of drawing to accurately represent a single molecule, such as CO2, relative to its neighboring particles. How does atmospheric carbon dioxide, which accounts for less than one half of one percent of the atmosphere, have such a profound impact on Earth’s regulatory systems? What are the mechanisms behind its powerful force? Is it atomic, molecular, or perhaps something else?
As the Earth receives energy from the sun, approximately 23% of it is absorbed by the atmosphere, 48% is absorbed by the Earth’s surfaces and 29% is reflected back into space.6 In Drawing Air, the width of an arrow’s body corresponds to the amount of solar radiation which is absorbed or reflected. A 23mm wide body represents atmospheric absorption, 48mm represents absorption by the surface, and 29mm is reflection. The percentages play an important role in a process known as radiative cooling, which is part of the reason why small quantities of CO2 have such a powerful effect.
The majority of gas in the atmosphere, Nitrogen and Oxygen, does not absorb solar radiation, but carbon atoms present in CO2, as well as water vapor, do.7 As they absorb radiation, it charges the particles, like a battery, by increasing their rate of atomic vibration. As the sun shines, the particles vibrate faster and faster until the planet’s rotation moves them away from the sun into the shadow of night. Overnight, they cool off by re-emitting the energy as thermal or infrared radiation, which slows down their rate of vibration through the process of radiative cooling; it’s this relationship which maintains a suitable temperature range for life on the surface.
The crux of climate change lies within the rate at which the particles cool. Before the industrial revolution, when there was half the amount of CO2 as today, a balance existed between the incoming radiation and the particles in the atmosphere.8 The rate of particle cooling, in combination with surface absorption and reflection, was in a harmonic state of equilibrium. Humans are quickly changing the atmosphere’s regulatory systems by burning its ancient spirits back into itself, thereby increasing the frequency of energy feedback, which causes exponential heat gain.
In Drawing Air, a network of connective lines and arrows indicates the movement of energy through an incredibly complex and dynamic system. Water vapor, represented by empty white cells, is freely dispersed on the left side of the composition while it comes together in cloud like shapes towards the right. Oxygen molecules are represented by white dots, Nitrogen by grey squares, and Carbon on the right side is a dark grey target which sits atop a collection of water particles. The medium sized white circles represent water in a foreground plane connected by a spidery network of threads indicating potential energy pathways for radiative cooling. It begins to hint at the entropy which the system’s energy is moving towards.
A feedback loop in the drawing’s right hand panel touches on the complexity of energy dispersion at work. It suggests there are regulatory cycles which balance incoming energy from the sun with atmospheric chemistry. Biologist, Lynn Margulis, and atmospheric scientist, James Lovelock, proposed this in their fiercely debated theory of climatology, Gaia. Climate scientist, Michael Mann, eloquently describes their concept as “processes governing the Earth system that act—through the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology—in such a manner as to generally oppose forces that are pushing the system away from its equilibrium state.” 9 If this is true, then humans could start a chemical feedback loop, and push climate towards equilibrium. Although, it depends on how we choose to see the atmosphere. Is it out of sight, out of mind, or is it a system of dynamic relationships which make the spirits of life on Earth possible?
References
1. UCAR Center for Science Education (2025). The History of Atmospheric Discovery. Available at: https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/atmosphere/history-discovery-atmosphere (Accessed: 6 December 2025)
2. Etymonline (2025). Origin and history of gas. Available at: https://www.etymonline.com/word/gas (Accessed: 6 December 2025)
3. Image- illustration of Torricelli barometer. Italy on This Day (2016). Evangelista Torricelli – inventor of the barometer. Available at: https://www.italyonthisday.com/2016/10/evangelista-torricelli-inventor-of.html (Accessed: 20 December 2025)
4. University of Missouri Extension (2022). Nitrogen in the Plant. Available at: https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/wq259 (Accessed: 20 December 2025)
5. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2024). The Atmosphere. Available at: https://www.noaa.gov/jetstream/atmosphere (Accessed: 16 November 2025)
6. Rebecca Lindsey (2009). Climate and Earth’s Energy Budget. Available at: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/EnergyBalance (Accessed: 16 November 2025)
7. NASA Science Editorial Team (2022). Steamy Relationships: How Atmospheric Water Vapor Amplifies Earth’s Greenhouse Effect. Available at: https://science.nasa.gov/earth/climate-change/steamy-relationships-how-atmospheric-water-vapor-amplifies-earths-greenhouse-effect/ (Accessed 16 November 2025)
8-9. Michael Mann (2023). Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth’s Past Can Help Us Solve the Climate Crisis. Pages 157, 43. Published by: Hachette Book Group, New York, NY.
