52.2

In 1985 I discovered British singer/songwriter Kate Bush and have been a fan ever since. Cloudbusting was a song based on a novel "Book of Dreams" - a memoir about a boy whose scientist father created "cloud buster" machines that could create and control weather. The government abducted the man, and the boy was left behind, finally getting his father's invention to work.

It was an amazing idea for a story, a song, and of course it's visually rich in the lyrical content. Having just heard the song again after a long time, I thought of it as I built this image. The first idea was to make a "contrarian" - a man determined to go against the flow. Given his odd stance seemingly floating in mid fall, but utterly relaxed, I intended for the environment around him to be going at the opposite angle - a light piece about going your own way.

Once I added the silos, really just the eyepiece end of an old brass telescope, I thought of CloudBusting, and the machines used to create the weather. It was set high on a hill, in the country, in a farm called Organon, and once I had these in place, and a weather system generated from right to left, it felt like Peter (the boy) all grown up, visiting Organon again as a man, reliving his father's dreams and turning on the machines.

In the ground and in the distance are two touches from the lyric: The glowing green orb is Peter's glow in the dark yo-yo which he buried at Organon, and the government agents that arrested his father are seen watching Peter, unaware of their presence.

This was a fun piece to do, and it was great to play in the fertile playground of Kate Bush and her beautiful song.

Model: Zack Barnes

Lyrics:

I still dream of Organon I wake up crying
you're making rain And you're just in reach
When you and sleep escape me
You're like my yo-yo that glowed in the dark
What made it special made it dangerous
So I bury it and forget

But every time it rains You're here in my head
Like the sun coming out
Ooh, I just know that Something good is going to happen
And I don't know when But just saying it could even make it happen

On top of the world looking over the edge
You could see them coming
You looked too small in their big, black car To be a threat to the men in power
I hid my yo-yo in the garden
I can't hide you from the government
Oh, God, daddy, I won't forget

'Cause every time it rains You're here in my head
Like the sun coming out
Ooh, I just know that Something good is going to happen
I don't know when But just saying it could even make it happen