Jonathan Wolfe

I’ve re-read this fascinating and gripping article a couple of times over the years. And yet I still dream of moving to coastal British Columbia 🤷

In my mind I’m still up there, flying through this magnificent landscape. Flying fractals in the fractals. Intensely peaceful, magical, alive.

1.3 million people get to live in a city that values human life so much that they don’t have a single traffic death in a whole year!

Fractal balloon over eroded sandstone canyons in front of Church Rock

Fractal balloon in front of Pyramid Rock

Fractal balloon and friend in front of the spires of Church Rock

Fractal balloon flying over fractal canyons

Had an absolutely wonderful weekend flying at Red Rocks outside Gallup. These sandstone canyons are incredibly beautiful, and you can get to some pretty amazing places by balloon that you just couldn’t reach any other way. Flying fractals in the fractals! #newmexicotrue

Fractal balloon Infinitude, launching together with friend Air Rockytop

Pilot and very happy passengers

Balloon silhouetted in front of Church Rock

“Koshare Gallup” balloon flying in Eagle Canyon

Hard to imagine a prettier morning. Love #ballooning at Red Rocks State Park, #newmexicotrue

Actually, there’s no tying involved :) So tiedye is really a misnomer. I fold it wet and then twist it into spirals, apply the dye with squeeze bottles, flip it, dye the other side, then let it sit 23 hours, unspiral, unfold, and rinse. I should make a video of the process, good idea!

Complete fractal inspired tiedyed tapestry, featuring a four-fold symmetric connected multi spiral pattern of firey foreground figures over a cool turquoise background

So glad I’ve started making #tiedye tapestries again! Dang this is fun!
This splendid creature is 9’x15’, and is about to go on tour behind the Lonn Calanca Band

YouTube video by NASA Goddard An Ocean in Motion: NASA's Mesmerizing View of Earth's Underwater Highways

There is so much amazing motion happening on the oceans. It’s beautiful, fascinating and super important. These are fantastic visualizations from NASA’s ECCO Project.
youtu.be/R5-s6O8qyvE

Man oh man, I’m grateful for the hard working guys I just saw putting stucco on a house on a hot Sunday afternoon in Abq. Outraged that these valuable, skilled people contributing to our society are living in fear of being grabbed and disappeared. Why? WTF?!

A poster showing the names of the colors in Navajo (Diné), above a poster showing the names in Spanish. Seen in an elementary school in Albuquerque.

I love living in #NewMexico!

What would a Declaration of Interdependence be like?
“We the people, birds, fish, plants trees, bugs, fungi, bacteria… declare that we are all valuable, vital contributors to the world and that we depend on each other for our health and survival...”
What would *you* express about Interdependence?

Ballooning in Albuquerque: What’s so special? A unique valley and mountain circulation forms a natural route for balloonists to navigate the atmosphere.

Cool story! Link is here: pubs.aip.org/physicstoday...

Cool local story! pubs.aip.org/physicstoday...

Supercool, I had assumed they were close to pigs, but I just fired up the wonderful onezoom.org to see they diverged 45mya. Thanks for sharing that! I saw a javelina once at night in NM it was awesome! Not a whole squadron though ;)

What a good idea - to recognize how important *everyone* is, and I mean everyone - including the birds and the insects and the fish and the soil microbes - we need to make a Declaration of Interdependence. *That’s* what we need to celebrate!

Just finished reading “Regenesis” - absolutely essential reading for anyone who wants to keep eating and keep the planet alive

I’m always teaching lessons about nonlinear thinking, and speed is a great example. Kinetic energy increases as the SQUARE of the velocity. A truck at 90mph has TWICE the energy of one going 65

What a damn fine leader you are

Tiedyed hot air balloon over a field

Tiedyed hot air balloon over a canal

Tiedyed hot air balloon over a field

This timeline is making me cry, everything is so unbearably awful I can’t stand it. I need to put some beauty out here. Enjoy a glimpse of Lucy in the Sky, my third tiedyed balloon, flying in Poland last week.

And they’re off! my.yb.tl/Torabhaig25

That’s a SUPER nice basket! I got to sit inside it when I visited Bert Padelt’s shop last year. So excited and wishing the team a successful launch and wonderful flight soon!

This is hard to wrap your mind around and accept, but having just read the amazing and powerful “Regenesis” by @georgemonbiot.bsky.social, it seems most modern farming and ranching looks a lot like ecocide. And we subsidize it massively 😬

Just discovered this blog. Thank you for producing it! Very glad to find smart committed people interested in the development of Albuquerque. Will follow and share with others.

This is an extraordinarily beautiful bird! The patterning is exquisite and the camouflage got me wondering: why don’t birds like this have sky blue undersides to be less visible to their prey? Wouldn’t that be something to see (or not!)

Fractal hotair balloon on a snowy field in the Swiss Alps being carried out to a road for deflation, with mountains in the background

Mountain flying is adventurous fun, but also a bit stressful. You may have unusual considerations, like not causing an avalanche, or being prepared to hike out or retrieve by snowmobile. When we flew in Chateau d’Oex Switzerland, we bought helicopter insurance! #MountainMonday

So proud of New Mexico for doing this! Kudos to the Governor for her leadership, and all the people who worked to make this happen! Pay attention to the long-term impacts this will have…
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The artist surrounded by his friends / crew, all wearing precision tiedye, in front of Gloria Caeli - a hand built fully tiedyed hot air balloon

For most people, tiedye is random, haphazard, messy. The way I do it is mathematical, precise, deliberate - but still containing just the right amount of surprise and chaos :)

T-shirt with a sample of color tests blending red into yellow and diluting

T-shirt with a sample of color tests blending red into purple and diluting

T-shirt with a sample of color tests blending turquoise into yellow and diluting

I was inspired seeing the beautiful work of @annalarssonstudio.bsky.social and @jbeatyart.bsky.social whose exploration of colorspace is itself a work of art.
Years ago, I did some detailed exercises testing the way colors blend on fabric while learning to tiedye

Gloria Caeli (Latin for “the Glory of the Sky”) a tiedyed hot air balloon, and the world’s largest tiedye.

Nice! Thanks for sharing! But actually, this balloon is called “HaleLucinations”, named after Bruce Hale, the patron who first supported my artistic vision. Bruce is gone, but the balloon flies on. “Gloria Caeli” was my earlier art balloon, but she’s sadly retired.

Father and daughter launching in a fractal art hotair balloon.

You know what’s stunning? Having your daughter become a pilot and taking you flying :) #Stunday