From 35,000 feet you can see the curvature of the Earth, the tops of clouds, brilliant sunrises and sunsets, and the intense blue of the atmosphere as it thins toward outer space.

This series started with snapshots taken through airplane windows. Allen applied an algorithm to convert them into grids of small dots, similar to a half-tone pattern, but different, because the original color values are retained. What remains is a record of light, specifically, the color of atmospheric light. The titles are the airline flight numbers and the time and place where the original snapshot was taken.

Stuart Allen is a visual artist based in Corrales, New Mexico and San Antonio, Texas. He works in a variety of media, from photography to large-scale steel. At the center of his practice are questions about light, time and human perception. Allen’s work has been included in more than 150 exhibitions throughout the U.S. and abroad and is found in dozens of public collections including: four U.S. Embassies, UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, and significant museum collections throughout the United States. Allen has completed more than 20 permanent public art projects in California, Texas, Missouri and Ontario, Canada. Allen studied architecture at Kansas University and graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1993.