Liz Collini

A mokuhanga portrait of Liz Collini, produced by Andrea G. Artz as part of her ongoing series of single-figure prints translated from photography. The image is constructed from multiple woodblocks, each carrying one tonal separation of the source photograph, printed in sequence on dampened washi using the baren and water-based pigments bound with rice paste. The technique allows pigment to settle within the paper fibres, giving the print the matte, breath-like surface that distinguishes mokuhanga from European oil-based relief printing. Bokashi gradations carry the soft modelling of skin and hair across the sitter's face, while a key block holds the contours that anchor likeness. Kentō registration aligns the successive impressions. The print reflects Artz's broader interdisciplinary practice — emerging from photography into installation, sculpture, collage, and print — and her sustained focus on the human figure. Alongside her three-dimensional folded paper portraits, these flat sheet works form part of an extended inquiry into how a photographic likeness survives translation into woodblock.