Breathing Space #1

Breathing Space #1 (2015) is part of Catherine Kernan's 2015 series of woodcut monoprints, pulled with Akua Intaglio inks at Mixit Print Studio in Somerville. As a monoprint rather than an editioned print, the work is a unique impression: a carved woodblock matrix supplies the underlying structure, but each pull involves variable inking, color, and layering, so no two prints in the series are identical. Akua Intaglio is a water-soluble, soy-oil-based ink used widely in contemporary American printmaking for its long open time, transparency when thinned, and clean wash effects — qualities Kernan exploits to push woodcut toward the tonal range of painting. The Breathing Space title points to the compositional logic of the series: open fields, restrained mark-making, and intervals between forms. Kernan's practice sits at the boundary between woodcut and painting, and the work belongs to a sustained printmaking output she has developed since her 1981 MFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.