027 - Washi Sticker

Number 027 in Goesel's ongoing washi sticker series, a body of small-format mokuhanga editions printed on adhesive-backed Japanese paper. The sticker format compresses traditional water-based woodblock printing into a portable, modular object, allowing the artist to test color registration, key block carving, and bokashi gradation at miniature scale. Each numbered sticker functions as both finished work and study, accumulating into a serial archive of mark-making on washi. The format reflects a contemporary mokuhanga sensibility that Goesel shares with peers exhibiting at the International Mokuhanga Conference: an interest in extending the technical vocabulary of baren-printed water-based pigment beyond the traditional oban sheet. Printed by hand using the same wet-paper, baren-rubbed method developed in Edo-period workshops, the small dimensions concentrate attention on grain, ink saturation, and the absorbent qualities of the washi substrate.