The painting that gave this exhibition its name. It is both landscape and self-portrait — a declaration from within the weather.
The Storm Permission Manifesto
I am not here to paint peace.
I am here to paint what happens before the peace comes.
The moment the air shifts.
The moment the sky bruises.
The moment a person meets themselves and knows their truth.
These clouds are not decoration.
They are feeling made visible.
Grief, rage, softness, shame, tenderness—
held together in medium and motion.
I do not paint storms to warn you.
I paint them to welcome you back—
to the part of you that feels too much,
the part you were told to hide,
the part you were taught to mistrust
because it spoke too loudly, wept too openly,
or dared to want more.
Here, you are allowed.
Here, you are not too much.
You are weather. You are sky.
You are the whole horizon, unflattened.
This is not a gallery of restraint.
This is a cathedral of release.
This is permission.
To storm. To soften. To begin again.
— Rachael Mia Allen, 2025