Making the Invisible Visible

About

Christine writes:

MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE

My project focuses on the continuous motion of our planet's atmosphere, made visible with clouds.

Clouds, made from tiny droplets of water or ice crystals, form from vapours in the air, they are part of the great water cycle that makes our planet habitable. Their infinite varieties, and permanent flux enable us to read the changes taking place in the atmosphere.

Clouds make the invisible visible.

Whilst researching this subject, I came across Luke Howard, an amateur meteorologist from 1803. It was Howard who named the various cloud structures, he used the latin words for; hair to describe cirrus, heap for cumulus, layer for stratus and rain-bearing for nimbus. His observations were published in a book, ”The Modifications of Clouds,” Howard’s naming system is still used by meteorological communities across the world today.

I wanted to illustrate these cloud types, with my prints. As much as I am in awe of the beauty of the skies, I am also fascinated by the information that these varies forms and shapes can tell us about weather systems, and other changes happening in the atmosphere.

POEM to accompany motion video:

I am the daughter of Earth and Water, and the nursling of the Sky;

I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; I change, but I cannot die.

For after the rain when with never a stain the pavilion of Heaven is bare,

and the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams build up the blue dome of air,

I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, and out of the caverns of rain,

like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, I arise and unbuild it again. ...

from 'The Cloud' by Shelley