Cloud Diary

Cloud Diary is a series begun in 2013 as a deeper examination of my Hamon paintings, a body of work I began in 2003 after an apprenticeship with a master metalsmith in Japan. The Hamon paintings take their name from the cloud-like tempering patterns that appear along the edge of a Japanese sword during the tempering process.

The Cloud Diary works are executed with a technique combining printing and painting with ink on aluminum composite panel and based on a photograph of a cloud observed at a specific moment and place. The titles—recording the exact date, time, and location—mark fixed coordinates in space-time. Each cloud becomes a marker through which I locate myself. Clouds function as a natural clock, their forms shifting by the millisecond.

The series comprises several sub-groups, including Unkai (a sea of clouds), Chou-un (clouds that resemble a flock of birds), Kumo (simply “cloud,” focused on distilled forms), Unkan (exploring the spatial intervals, or ma, between clouds), and Night Clouds (formations present overhead in darkness). It also encompasses Evening Cloud (Yūgumo), Morning Cloud (Asagumo), Kumoriyo (a night when the sky is thick with clouds and no moon or stars can be seen), Saiun(iridescent cloud), Seiun (bluish clouds), Ukigumo (floating cloud), and others.

These variations reflect an ongoing investigation into visual and linguistic lacunae. Terms such as chou-un and unkai have no English equivalents, revealing differences in value systems through language and the lexical gaps it makes visible.

Cloud Diary is an ongoing record of micro-observations, chronicled through my artwork.