Biography
Andrew Stone is an American mokuhanga printmaker and baren maker based near Florence, Italy, whose unusual path from emergency medicine to Japanese woodblock printing has made him a beloved figure in the international mokuhanga community. A former emergency physician, Stone left medicine to become an urban farmer in the Tuscan countryside with his Italian wife and two children, dividing his time between Italy and Santa Cruz, California.
Stone began his mokuhanga journey at the age of forty, and over the course of fifteen years has undertaken a deep exploration of the art form's nuances, from printing technique to tool construction. His artistic practice encompasses both the creation of mokuhanga prints and the crafting of baren -- the essential hand-held printing tools used in Japanese woodblock printing. This dual focus on printmaking and toolmaking connects him to a long tradition of practitioners who understand the intimate relationship between the tools and the art they produce.
His best-known series is the Chinese Zodiac, a multi-year project begun in 2007 in which he creates a new woodblock print for each year's animal. The series demonstrates both his technical growth over time and his playful approach to subject matter -- the Year of the Rat (2008) was based on a drawing by his then eight-year-old son, while the Year of the Dog (2018) features his rescued Segugio Italiano. Beyond the zodiac series, Stone experiments with etegami-based prints, white-line Provincetown-style techniques, and color overlay studies, maintaining a spirit of inquiry that characterizes his practice.
Stone's Florence Baren Project represents a significant contribution to the mokuhanga community, connecting European and Japanese craft traditions. Through this project and his relationship with master baren maker Hidehiko Goto, Stone has helped bridge the gap between traditional Japanese toolmaking and Western printmaking practice. He has demonstrated Japanese woodblock printing at the Florence Tattoo Convention, displaying and demonstrating woodblock printing alongside Adachi Institute woodblocks reproducing well-known masterpieces of ukiyo-e. His blog, "Lacrime di Rospo" (Toad's Tears), documents his artistic experiments and life in Italy, and has become an important resource for mokuhanga practitioners worldwide. He exhibited at the International Mokuhanga Conference 2024 Europe exhibition.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇺🇸United States
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 1
Frequently Asked Questions
Andrew Stone is an American mokuhanga printmaker and baren maker based near Florence, Italy, whose unusual path from emergency medicine to Japanese woodblock printing has made him a beloved figure in the international mokuhanga community. A former emergency physician, Stone left medicine to become an urban farmer in the Tuscan countryside with his Italian wife and two children, dividing his time between Italy and Santa Cruz, California.
Andrew Stone's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.
Andrew Stone is a contemporary printmaker working in the mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock) tradition. Their work contributes to the living tradition of Japanese woodblock printing. Prices for contemporary mokuhanga prints range from $100 for smaller works to $1,500 for major compositions. Most prints sell in the $180–$600 range. The global mokuhanga community has been growing, with increasing exhibition opportunities and collector interest. Contemporary mokuhanga represents an affordable entry point for collectors.
