Classification of Clouds

A who's who of the clouds in the sky are handprinted in a cloud-like mass of circular diagrams on teal unryu ("Cloud Dragon paper" from Japan) in this first edition linoleum block print. The clouds represented are shown as they would appear in the sky; the lower altitude clouds are lowest, the mid-altitude clouds in the middle and the high altitude clouds at the top. We have cumulonimbus, stratocumulus and cumulus at the bottom. There are three types of altocumulus and one altostratus in the middle. The top level contains cirrocumulus and two types of cirrus clouds. Each is denoted by its own symbol.

The sheets are 12.5 inches tall by 18.5 iches tall (31.8 cm by 47.0 cm). The first edition contains 4 prints.

The fibres in the paper interplay with the clouds themselves.



I read a great biography of Luke Howard, who first classified the clouds in 1802. Some science is more obvious than others. His ability to see order where others see dragons, giraffes, faces and maps of foreign lands darting randomly and lazily above them is quite astounding. Whenever one goes to say, the American Geophysical Union meeting, one can count on good loot from NASA. I picked up the free cloud charts.