cloud collecting #24: Ella Barnes
a safe space to dream, building mountains in the sandbox + the art of noticing shadows
This week, I’m excited to highlight Ella Barnes, a New York-based artist and educator. Her distinctive cyanotype style has enchanted me since the first time I encountered it, and it's clear how much passion she pours into her craft. I’m thrilled to share some of her creative wisdom with you today!
Ella Barnes is a multimedia artist and educator working at the intersection of photography, sculpture, and collage through the cyanotype process. Using light-sensitive chemistry, she creates images without a camera, shaping light through shadow with sculpted materials and assembled objects. The resulting work explores a sky-like dimension, transmitting emotional content through luminous form and pattern.
As an educator, Ella is passionate about fostering creative discovery. She sees cyanotype as a meditative and wonder-inducing process—one that invites curiosity, presence, and experimentation. She is committed to expanding access to the process through workshops and online classes, making it more widely available. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Ella lives in Brooklyn, New York, and regularly teaches in person at institutions like a Penumbra Foundation.
1. I love that you describe your sunlight paintings as having an immense capacity for creative revitalization and therapeutic application. Can you share how you came to this art form and when you realized that it carried an alchemical healing aspect for you?
I first learned the cyanotype process while studying Photography and Imaging at NYU Tisch. I left cameras behind some time ago, drawn instead to this camera-less imaging technique. It naturally pulled me in, feeling deeply therapeutic—soothing, like creating subtle magic with simple materials and the sun. The process holds a powerful symmetry, or even a dichotomy: blue and white, light and shadow. The cyanotype chemistry undergoes a transformation catalyzed by sunlight—light renders blue, shadow renders white.
Over time, I began to see cyanotype as a method for sculpting light out of shadows. There’s emotional power in that. It’s a wonder-inducing process that anchors you in the present moment—a ritual, a practice, a safe space to dream, process, and play. In teaching others, I see my own experience reflected back to me. The joy is contagious. It’s fun and simple, light-powered magic.
2. Your approach to cyanotype is quite unique and I adore the mystic quality you capture. Do you have lengthy planning that goes into each piece ahead of time, or are your ideas often led by present moment experiments?
My process is a blend of concept and discovery. I start with a feeling, a sensation, or a sentiment that I want to express in shape. I work with different materials, geometric forms, and the analog technology of light. I love sculpting with paper, wire, fabric—materials with variations in translucency, texture and malleability.
I don’t sculpt for the form itself but for the shadow of the form, which means working in tandem with a light source. The sun, a window, a skylight, a light bulb—each one interacts differently. Shaping the light source shapes the shadow in return, adding another dimension to creative expression. I work until I see a moment come together, then capture it on pre-sensitized paper. In that sense, it’s like photography. Exposure length depends on various factors—it could take minutes or hours. It’s a playful, informed experiment.
3. How do you cloud collect (connect to childlike wonder) in your creativity?
I tap into that childlike wonder by shifting my focus to see past all forms and see only shadows. When I work, I play with a form in a pool of illumination, marveling at the harmonic, liquid quality of light as I interrupt its flow to create a shadow. In these moments, all else falls away. I am a child again, building mountains in the sandbox. In reality, all I need to 'cloud collect' is light itself. I start noticing an array of shadows—the way different light sources sculpt in their own way, texturally and directionally. Curious shadows are everywhere, hiding in plain sight. It’s all about a way of seeing; the art of noticing shadows.
The best online places to find + support Ella are her website and Instagram!
Thanks for sharing - lovely organic feel to these.