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](/glossary/washi) using the [baren](/glossary/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](/glossary/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.