Susan May

Susan May is a portrait print by Andrea G. Artz, identified with the Spring season in the artist's tagging. Produced in mokuhanga — Japanese water-based woodblock printing on [washi](/glossary/washi) — the work uses the technique's lighter chromatic palette to align with the seasonal motif. Spring associations in mokuhanga typically draw on cool greens, pale pinks and ivory tones built up through successive impressions, with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradients suggesting diffused daylight. As with the rest of Artz's portrait series, the image originates in photography: the photograph is colour-separated, transferred to multiple blocks and printed in registration through kentō notches, with a [baren](/glossary/baren) used to burnish each layer onto the dampened sheet. Artz, German-born and London-based, came to mokuhanga from a background in portrait photography and an MFA at the University of Leeds, and her wider practice extends into folded, three-dimensional paper portraits and installation. Susan May illustrates how the discipline of seasonal colouring within the mokuhanga tradition can be carried into a contemporary, photographically-derived likeness.