Katherine Owen

A mokuhanga portrait of Katherine Owen, produced by Andrea G. Artz as part of her ongoing engagement with the human figure in print. The image is generated from a photographic source, then decomposed into a stack of tonal separations, each cut into its own woodblock and printed in sequence on [washi](/glossary/washi) dampened to receive water-based pigments. Registration is held by kentō notches, allowing the successive impressions to align so that the sitter's features resolve through accumulated colour rather than line alone. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations soften the modelling of skin and hair, while flatter areas retain the planar quality typical of mokuhanga. Artz's interest, evident across her practice, lies in what is gained and lost when a digital portrait is rebuilt by hand through carving and printing — the photograph's continuous tone giving way to discrete planes of pigment held in the paper. Alongside her sculptural folded portraits and installation work, these sheet prints form the flat register of an interdisciplinary practice rooted in photographic portraiture.