John Cage—quoting Sri Lankan philosopher Ananda Coomaraswamy—famously advocated for art as the “imitation of nature in her manner of operation.” In much the same spirit, Brooklyn-based William Lamson harnesses the wind and the waves for his recent work. From simple materials, such as empty bottles, twine, and wood, he cobbles together spindly kinetic contraptions that enlist those natural forces to generate pencil or black-pen drawings.

For example, Lamson taped a marker to a water bottle attached to the string of a kite. He then ran the string through a rough wooden tripod, so that when the wind