Dinner Prep
New from the studio.
In May I visited the MFA Boston on assignment from The New Criterion to review “The Provincetown Printmakers.” I won’t spoil it, but I don’t mind revealing that the show is a gem. It caused me to reflect that my own work of recent times would do well as white-line woodcuts. I’m pleased to show the latest attempt to that effect.
White-line woodcut was developed in Provincetown in the late 19th century by B. J. O. Nordfeldt, who was a trained mokuhanga printer. White-line uses the same general materials but substitutes Western watercolors for pigments in rice starch, and employs a carving method in which you simply cut the drawing into a single block. You can then paint the separated areas with a watercolor brush. With an area painted, you drop paper upon it and rub said area on the back of the paper with a wooden spoon. You repeat with more applications until you have an image. The drawing appears as white paper, hence the term.
I think of the method as particularly American, in that relative to the source tradition, to which its attitude is reverent but not slavish, it is more direct, more economical, and spunkier. That hadn’t occurred to me by the time I filed at TNC, but Independence Day and attendant marvel for the American project has shaken the thoughts loose. I hope you’re having a fine holiday in this great country or wherever you find yourself.
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We are in the midst of an Asynchonous Studio Book Club reading of Anne Truitt’s Yield. Obtain your copy and jump in.
Per an exchange we had a while back, this time the liberties taken in the representations contribute constructively to the integrity of the abstract composition. This time those liberties, because they are in line with the general character of the composition and aren't arbitrarily, perfunctorily applied because one didn't know what else to do, don't distract from my believing the depiction. I'd add that the craftsmanly, handmade feel of the technique is a warming and humanizing softening of the of the composition's geometric rigor.
Interesting! My only "nit" was that you made me look up "mokuhanga" on my own, haha. It's fascinating that this technique (in America) can be traced to a certain East Coast entry point, and not a more obvious entry one like in CA. As a "side" printmaker from decades ago, I have to say I don't recall ever learning about this approach. Funny that there some obvious elements of coloring books in this technique, but the watercolors yield something rather special. It feels like something between monoprints and more traditional block printing.