Julie Greenslade

A portrait print of Julie Greenslade, produced by Andrea G. Artz through her practice of translating photographic source material into mokuhanga. Working from a digital portrait, Artz separates tonal information into discrete colour blocks, each carved into a separate cherry or shina plywood matrix and printed in sequence onto dampened [washi](/glossary/washi) using the [baren](/glossary/baren). The water-based pigments characteristic of mokuhanga settle into the paper fibres rather than sitting on the surface, producing the soft transitions and matte luminosity that distinguish the technique from oil-based Western relief printing. Subtle [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations stand in for the continuous tone of the original photograph, while registered key blocks define the sitter's contours. The work belongs to Artz's ongoing series of single-figure portraits, which extends her training as a portrait photographer into the analogue vocabulary of Japanese water-based woodblock. Within her wider practice — which includes folded paper sculptures and site-specific installations — these flat sheet portraits function as the two-dimensional counterpart to her dimensional, filigree-like constructions.