Next Mountain

Next Mountain alludes to landscape without describing it directly — the title's incremental phrasing implying a sequence of receding peaks rather than a single vista. Layered mokuhanga impressions on washi, registered through baren-applied pressure on cherry blocks, produce overlapping silhouette forms whose successive opacities suggest atmospheric perspective. The convention recalls meisho-e and shin-hanga landscape traditions, in which mountain ranges were rendered through stacked planes of bokashi-graded color, but here the reference is structural rather than illusionistic. Silkscreen overlays introduce sharper geometric forms that interrupt the soft mokuhanga gradients, while intaglio mark-making contributes line and plate tone. Plant-based pigments — indigo, walnut, or madder derivatives — produce a muted palette consonant with the natural-dye traditions Jung also teaches at the University of Iowa. The print belongs to a body of work that has carried the artist's name into recent Japanese international print biennial selections, where American mokuhanga practitioners are still relatively rare.