Jacki Baxter

Jacki Baxter is part of Artz's portrait series produced in mokuhanga, the Japanese water-based woodblock medium that she adopted after training in photography. The print probably presents the sitter in a head or shoulder-length view, with the photographic source translated through a sequence of separately carved and registered blocks. Mokuhanga's defining technique of bokashi — graduated washes of pigment laid onto the block before printing — is well suited to portraiture, allowing soft tonal transitions across the face without recourse to halftone screens or stippled ink. Printed on absorbent washi using a hand-held baren rather than a press, each impression carries small variations in saturation that distinguish it from a photographic edition. The work reflects Artz's broader interest in moving figurative imagery between media, a concern that also drives her sculptural practice of folding photographic prints into nearly weightless paper objects.