Frank Piatek took a break between receiving his bachelor’s degree from SAIC in 1967 and his master’s degree four years later. Bitten by the etching bug—largely as a result of viewing an Art Institute exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s late prints—he enrolled in an etching class with Vera Berdich and made this work. Clouds and Mountains and other prints like it relate to a large series of drawings conflating images of clouds and mountains that Piatek made using a Bic ballpoint pen. The density of his etched lines is directly linked to the strong impression that Picasso’s prints made on him.