Sonia Thomas

This portrait of Sonia Thomas belongs to Andrea G. Artz's mokuhanga series in which photographic sittings are translated into hand-printed multi-block woodblock prints on [washi](/glossary/washi). The image is constructed from a sequence of carved blocks: a key block describing the contour and the darkest passages of the face, supported by additional blocks that supply hair, flesh, and any background tone. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) — the gradient produced by wiping pigment across the block before printing — softens transitions around the eye sockets, jaw, and hairline, and the slight texture of [baren](/glossary/baren) pressure remains visible across the sheet. The print thus carries two registers of attention: the camera's immediate likeness and the carver's slower editing of that likeness into discrete color planes. Artz's practice extends beyond the flat print into folded three-dimensional paper figures and installation work; the Thomas portrait belongs to the same body of source imagery and can be read as the planar form of a portrait she might also realize as a sculptural object.