I was heading up to Katoomba and then back down to Sydney, this journey has happened countless times over many years. Sometimes the mist over the mountains can be full of beautiful promise. I remember works by various artists that would paint the misty landscape. There is one artist who taught at my uni in the 90s but I can’t remember his name right now who did these types of works.

What I thought about in regards to mist is what does the idea correlate to in general, be it memories, nostalgia, nature or the way a subject tries to defy your eyes. It is that you see it but it is trying to hide something, it seems delicate, light, subtle and can transport you into a world that reminds you that you never truly know its form. Forms can soften and seem to disappear right in front of your eyes.

For me now after all of my initial feelings to the misty landscape which have varied with age I feel that nature is letting you forget the form that was there before it. You realise in this state that you never knew it in all of its iterations. It asks you to keep forgetting but also try to figure out the world you now find yourself in. You know that behind the mist is the real, yet the mist is now more real yet also less real.

Mist is a contradiction then, nature puts on this display and lets the clouds from above play below. In some situations these displays can be dangerous if you were driving for example through a fog. At the same time nature needs to hide itself and hide you from it, mostly nature is controlling you even though you have no idea of its grip on you. The mist then becomes a moment you can escape nature even if at the same it is a dangerous or passive experience.