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 using the 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 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.