Above us only smog

Sky of the year 2014

2014 was definitely the year of the sky, so it's only fair to present the sky of the year 2014 award. Skies started getting odd late January and they have been quite embarrassing throughout the year. July had windy spells which blew some blue back and November saw almost natural circumstances for most days, but that was about it. Last weeks have been daily madness all over again.

Early skies were scary yet beautiful, later they became more depressing, with growing difficulty to enjoy the show, not in the least through the ever thickening smog over our heads. Patterns have changed. In the beginning it was all long lines widening out and creating the famed Milky Veil. After summer short fat lines which quickly dissolved but filled the sky with filth nonetheless, certainly nothing like ordinary planes produce, started appearing. On coinciding days they would manage to block the sun out of a cloudfree sky. Those skies have certainly earned their égards for growing into the new normal, but since we are entering a new year, we now may expect to see it happen once more, a year in which a lot of our strength and wisdom will be needed, I propose a beauty contest. Which skies have most awed us? Do you remember? I took pictures to help me. I started in January and took a lot in summer, autumn skies were flatter with the ingreying doing damage. Some are quite dramatic, clouds building a theatre stage high up over the land, enormous spectacles of Dalí inspired sculpture, on the other hand a veil fighting it out with the sun. Yet nothing was done with them. Nobody talked about this daily circus in our skies. I altered some of these pictures, looking for the colours beneath the inevitable grey tones, and made a couple T-shirts with them. The photos presented in my top five are mostly in their original state.

5 Catalunya

Our summer was handsomely wrecked by all the spraying from airplanes and early August felt like November, not in the least considering how dark it sometimes was. These skies are totally fake and they were taking away our sun. For skin protection, they told us in autumn.

4 Through the heart

Milky veil with struggling sun and a fresh chemtrail stabbing it straight through the heart in late afternoon, now there is a classic picture we have seen way too often this year. This one is from June, near Castelldefels. I really like its dreamlike quality.

3 Music

The beauty of those plucky cotton skies is in their ability to allow extreme close ups. With the sun peeping through, the clouds look like an orchestra of barking dogs, well conducted by the voice of the light. Music in the sky, I like to call this one. 't Was on a bright June Saturday, we had a couple of those, with skies we would never see again afterwards, real early stage art live in the making.

2 Tourist spec

When people surface from their metro ride they all look upwards, just to see how far construction has progressed since the last time they trod these steps. Tourists, of course, don't leave it at that. In their well-practiced awe they stop in their stride and grab for their photo camera, with busy locals angrily urging them on. It's a classic display of mutual dislike. But is any one of these people looking beyond the spires to see what's going on further up? I thought it quite the spectacle and deserving of a top spot.

1 Elephant

For all that it represents of the year 2014, this picture receives our award. June at the beach, the water still a bit chilly but the mood uplifting. After horror May everybody was in for a funky summer. Notice how nobody seems too interested in that ridiculous cotton pattern over their heads. They rather turn their face to the oddly white sunlight. But I was lying on my back and I saw this one coming. Call that a cloud? I chose to call it the elephant in the sky. I made a T-shirt out of this picture.