Hello friends!

Welcome to my humble domain! Today is a special day. It marks two momentous occasions for Captured Sky: one week from today will be the one year anniversary of the first sky capturing, AND it is also the first ‘blog’ posting for Captured Sky on a whole! If you are a skydiver you know all those firsts are going to require some sacrifices to the beer gods. But before we go loosing our pants in the celebratory custom, it seems like a fine time to reflect back on the day we first tried to coerce the sky to paint for us.

It was July 7th, a bright and sunny Sunday at Skydive Dallas. I had spent most the day videoing tandem students for the drop zone. But, being in the middle of summer, there was still a lot of daylight out by the time we finished up with our “work.” For quite some time I had been collecting the materials needed for this little venture; disposable and yet somehow also jumpable skydiving gear, straps, canvas, paint, cojones (the last one was hands down the hardest to find in store…had to order online) and had finally rounded up the last few pieces in the preceding week. So Frank, my talented fiancé and videographer, and I decided it was time to give it a go and paint with the sky!

We weren’t really sure how well the canvases would endure freefall so we decided to start out with two really small ones that fit nicely strapped across my left forearm. I didn’t have a particularly clever way of affixing them there though, opting for cut up pieces of old t-shirts held to canvas by means of a wood stapler. A method that proved stretchy and inefficient (and inevitably cost me a canvas a week later). Curious if the paint would draw differently across the canvas, I took one that was blank and one that I had added a yellow base coat of paint the night before. Regretfully, I didn’t get to find out if that made any difference in the painting. The whole jump I never managed to get the paint out and onto any of the canvases! It was such a disappointment.

“Well that was a failed attempt.” I told Frank as he met me in the landing area to see my finished, unfinished artwork. “If this is the product of sky art, I don’t think we’re going anywhere.” I chuckled as we made our way back inside.

But after a little adjusting of paint consistencies, some repacking of our gear, and a quick ride back to altitude, we gave it another go. This time SUCCESS! A quick barrel roll out the door and a squeeze at my bottle of blue et viola! The color sputtered out the cap and the winds began to paint! I remember looking back at Frank with elation as the sky made her first works. Granted the canvases were really small so she didn’t have a lot of space, and my shabby t-shirt straps were stretching so I ended up getting my fingers all over one of them, but we totally caught some sky!

Since then, I’ve caught a little over thirty pieces. Some stunning…some not as stunning…but all unique creations of the sky. With each jump I learn a little more about how the sky paints and what she needs in order to create more beautiful images. It has been a curious and interesting journey so far and we’re just getting started. It makes Frank and me very excited to see what the future will hold for Captured Sky, hope you are excited too!