Poudre School District 7th graders from Alice Champagne’s Visual Arts classes at Lesher Middle School, and Julie Hansen-Conn’s Art classes at Lincoln Middle School created Smog Collectors with Los Angeles artist Kim Abeles, who innovated the Smog Collector process in the early 1980s to illustrate the reality of the air we breathe.

Students stenciled images of nature, and their personal interests related to the air we breathe, and then they attached the stencils to tiles. The Smog Collectors were then placed on the school rooftops. For a month, the tiles were exposed to the smog in the air. Once the stencils are removed, the images are revealed in smog! They are the “footprints of the sky”.

Smog (particulate matter) is composed of fossil fuel emissions from vehicles and factories, and other airborne particles from wood burning, agriculture, and even tires as they roll along the road. We inhale microscopic particles called PM2.5; they are 2.5 microns or less in diameter and easily enter our bodies. The quantity and their composition depend on the location, the wind, and the seasons. The smoke and particulate matter from wildfires, for example, affect local communities and those many miles from the source.