Simultaneous Sunsets

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When I’m tempted to believe I’ve seen everything I’m shown something I’ve never seen before—a 360-degree wraparound sunset, or, more accurately, a simultaneous series of sunsets that appear to be engaged in some kind of astral collaboration without consciously being aware of what the other is doing.

It happened last evening, May 31, 2021, in the skies above northwest Wyoming between 8:22 pm and 8:46 pm, Mountain Standard Time.

To be clear, there were four separate sunsets ‘happening’ at the same time—one to the north, one to the west, one east, and one south—each distinct in form and in atmospheric mood, as if made by four different artists who were each unaware of the other’s work (creating art without undue influence) and who each believed art-making as a necessary endeavor. Each sunset was a completely original ‘work’, looking ready to be hung on a gallery wall.

Was I tempted to see much too much in this atmospheric phenomenon? Yes! How could I not? Leaving God aside, the other-worldly archetype which typically gets all the credit, there was something strange and wonderful going on in the sky, something I’d never understand or ever have the right words for.

Nevertheless, the occasion called for some sort of explanation. Having none, I imagined making a new painting in celebration of what I’d seen—to purchase a very large sheet of unprimed canvas, stretch it from floor to ceiling, and divide the space up into a series of panels that depict all the great movements in art history, from the cave paintings of Lascaux to Dada, from photography to post-modernism.

Western Sunset, one of four simultaneous directional sunsets, May 31, 2021, northwest Wyoming.