2021 Mokuhanga Conference

The Sumi-Fusion: Mokuhanga & Nara conference will take place in Nara Japan from December 1 to 3, and, because of travel restrictions, the conference will also be presented virtually. That means we all can go!

Themed around Japanese sumi ink, the color black, and woodblock printing, the conference will feature over 30 paper presentations, demonstrations, open portfolios and accompanying print and book exhibitions, as well as virtual tours of the ancient capital of Nara and sumi production. Early bird registration ends on October 9.

Woodblock Dreams Tarot!

 If you don't follow me on Instagram you may not know that I've spent the past year and a half creating woodblock art for a self-published tarot deck. I'm not gonna lie, it was a slog sometimes, as a full tarot deck consists of 78 images. But I finished the art, scanned it, prepped the digital files, wrote a guidebook, designed a box, made a web site, and now it's all at the printer! I expect to receive the first edition of decks in early October.

On the new Woodblock Dreams Tarot web site you can find images of all 78 cards, a downloadable PDF version of the guidebook, some background on the project, and a link to order a deck.

Currently I'm offering a limited-time pre-order special, with free shipping in the USA and reduced shipping overseas, available from now through September 26, 2021. Here are the details:

• SHIPPING BEGINS IN OCTOBER 2021
• Standard size tarot cards (2.75 x 4.75 in) on 350 gsm card stock
• Limited first edition of 500 decks
• All decks signed and numbered
• Sturdy 2-piece box
• 52-page guidebook included
• FREE SHIPPING in USA; reduced shipping overseas
• $75/deck plus sales tax as applicable 

Sumi Fusion Show in Japan

From November 30 – December 4, 2021, the Fourth International Mokuhanga Conference, called "Sumi Fusion," is scheduled to take place in Nara Japan. It's uncertain at this time whether the conference will be mostly online or a hybrid in-person/online event, but either way there will be a show called "Sumi Fusion" that will take place both online and in person in Nara. Nara is renowned as a center for the production of sumi ink, and the conference and the show will celebrate the versatility of sumi in woodblock printing and explore the presence of black and how it relates to color.

I wanted to submit something sumi-related for the show but I didn't have time to work up a print from scratch, so I went back to a block from one of my halftone prints in the Relics series and decided to experiment with putting down some colors as a base layer it and then printing the halftone block on top of the colors with sumi ink. I chose this block to work with:

This is the print from the Relics series that I made from this block, which I called "Our Lady":

 

For my Sumi Fusion print, I decided that it would be fun to also do an East/West fusion by using the uniquely American method of woodblock printing known as "Provincetown" or "white line" printing for the colors and then printing the halftone block Japanese style with sumi ink.

I began by laying some tracing paper over one of the Our Lady prints and making a sketch of where I wanted to place the colors. Then I reversed the tracing paper and used carbon paper to transfer the drawing to a piece of wood for the white line print. In white line, a v-gouge is used to make thin lines in the wood that will guide the placement of the inks (I used Guerra pigment dispersions but you can use watercolors or gouache). 

The block is pink because I had used it previously for the background colors in the Relics series.

 

Here's what the print looked like before I put down the sumi layer:

 
 And here's what happened when the sumi was added:

 I'm titling this print "Matrix," both because of the word's meaning as "mother" and also because it's the second time I'm using this particular carved matrix, and using it in a different way.
 
Since this was just an experiment, I made a small edition of four. I always love seeing these prints at varying distances—the way the image comes together and comes apart depending on how close you are to it.

The deadline to submit work for the Sumi Fusion Show has been extended until July 31, so if you want to submit the link is here. At US$50 the entry fee is admittedly high. I feel OK about that because I see it as a way to support the International Mokuhanga Association. The international panel of judges is impressive, which is sometimes a good reason to spring for a fee as well. Judges include Leonie Bradley (artist and editor of Printmaking Today), Hiroko Furuya (professor at Tama Art University), Takuji Hamanaka (awesomely creative mokuhanga artist living in the US), and Yasu Shibata (master printer at Pace Editions).

For My White Line Students - V. 2

Here are a few examples of white line prints to help students prepare images for the White Line Woodblock workshops that I teach. Hopefully this will give you a sense of what is possible with this method and help you as you prepare your drawings.

The white line woodblock method was founded in the early 1900s in Provincetown, Massachusetts, by a group of artists who were interested in Japanese printmaking but grew tired of the tedium of cutting a block of wood for every color as that method demanded. These Provincetown artists, including Blanche Lazzell and Edna Boies Hopkins, developed a way to make a polychrome print from a single block of wood.

Monongahila by Blanche Lazzell

Canoes (Swift Water) by Edna Boies Hopkins

In the white line method, a simple line drawing is incised on the block with a knife or gouge creating v-shaped cuts, which become white lines when printed.

A white line carving in process

Colors, usually watercolor pigments, are then applied to the carved areas with small brushes, one area at a time, and a hinged piece of paper is flipped over onto the damp paint to receive the impression, whihc is taken with a spoon or other burnisher.

Printing in process

Below is a gallery of white line prints showing a range of the kinds of prints that can be made with this method. Note that although white line woodcuts have historically been figurative, since they are drawing-based there is no reason why they cannot be as abstract or expressive as any other form of drawing. Your sketch just needs to be simple enough to transfer to a block by tracing with carbon paper. (Or you can draw directly onto the block.)

B.J.O. Norfeldt, who is said to have invented the method in 1915

Edith Lake Wilkinson, who may have actually invented the method in 1914 (see the documentary Packed in a Trunk)

Mabel Hewit

Ada Gilmore (Chaffee) - a particularly painterly application of color

Florence Cannon, active in the 1940s

Karl Knaths, a Provincetown artist

Kathryn Smith, a contemporary artist with family ties to the original Provincetown Printers

William Evaul, a contemporary Cape Cod artist who has taken white line VERY large

Ray Heus, another contemporary artist with ties to Cape Cod. Ray also does mokuhanga printmaking

Joseph Vorgity

Katherine Lovell, a Rhode Island painter and printmaker

Four works by Annie Bissett that all use the same block matrix, just with different colors (plus some toner transfer)