College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Art obsession

Meteorology's William Gallus can add art adviser to his resume after working with new exhibition on campus.
When he was first approached about a new art exhibit in Iowa State's Brunnier Museum that would spotlight the weather, William Gallus thought the artists would choose dramatic scenes of tornados, snowstorms, or lightning strikes.

"The majority of the artwork in the exhibit is much more subtle. I was surprised that so many works had peaceful cloud scenes," says Gallus, professor of geological and atmospheric sciences.

"I don't think the works are what a meteorologist would think of painting when asked to depict weather."

Instead of hailstorms tearing through the sky or tornados bearing down on an unsuspecting farm, the artwork in "OBSESSED: Images of Weather" are much more calm and sedate.

"This approach forced me to look hard at the paintings," Gallus said. "The basic thing is that weather can take place even with small batches of clouds."

"OBSESSED" has been on display in the Brunnier Art Museum in the Scheman Building on campus since the beginning of the fall semester. The exhibition features the works of five regional artists whose art repeatedly explores sky.

The artists were partnered with Iowa State atmospheric scientists, exchanging concepts, imagery, and philosophies.

For the past two years, Gallus has been attending meetings and providing technical assistance to the artists. At an initial meeting he was joined by other atmospheric science faculty members, Iowa Department of Transportation officials, area farmers, and many of the artists.

"We shared thoughts, talking about how weather has affected our lives," he said.

At later meetings, it was just Gallus who represented the scientific side of the discussion. Eventually he wrote statements about the works as they were brought into the Brunnier.

And although he was the scientific "adviser" on the project, Gallus had little contact with the artists after that first meeting. That first meeting must have been productive. Gallus says the paintings in "OBSESSED" are very realistic.

"The detail and colors on the works were so perfect it's almost like looking at a photograph," he said. "I didn't find any major flaws in the way the artists depicted the atmosphere."

One painting in particular drew his attention at the exhibition opening last September. The work reminded Gallus of the Colorado Rockies.

"There were several I really liked, but one in particular had fairly black-looking clouds just coming over the nearby hill," he said, "and if you've ever been in Colorado hiking, you'll recall the rush of fear and the urgency of needing to get down out of the mountains when you see that."