Linda Simmonds

A portrait of Linda Simmonds rendered in mokuhanga by Andrea G. Artz. The print is built from a sequence of carved woodblocks, each carrying one tonal layer of an underlying photographic portrait; the blocks are inked with water-based pigments mixed with rice paste and pressed into pre-dampened [washi](/glossary/washi) by hand with the [baren](/glossary/baren). The water-based system allows pigment to soak into the paper, giving mokuhanga its characteristic absorbent surface and matte register, while [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) — applied by brushing pigment unevenly across a block before printing — handles graded transitions across the sitter's features. Kentō notches keep the multiple impressions in alignment. Artz's practice, developed since her MFA at the University of Leeds, treats the human figure as its central subject across photography, sculpture, installation, and print. This portrait forms part of a sustained sequence in which she translates contemporary photographic likenesses into the analogue vocabulary of Japanese water-based woodblock, attending to what each medium discloses about the sitter.