Breathing Space #4
- Date:
- 2015
- Medium:
- Woodcut monoprint, Akua Intaglio inks
- Dimensions:
- 111.8 × 76.2 cm
- Image courtesy of
- Artist's official site
Breathing Space #4 (2015) belongs to Kernan's 2015 sequence of woodcut monoprints, in which a fixed block functions as a starting matrix and each pull is treated as an autonomous work. Akua Intaglio inks — water-soluble and soy-oil-based — are central to the method: they remain open on the block long enough for the printmaker to thin, blot, and overlay, producing transparent layers and washes uncommon in traditional relief printing. Where Edo-period [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e) relied on tightly registered color blocks and key blocks producing identical impressions, monoprinting inverts that logic: registration anchors the structure, but each impression diverges through inking choices made in the moment. The Breathing Space title signals the compositional restraint of the series — open fields, paused gestures, and rest intervals between forms. Kernan has pursued this boundary between woodcut and painting throughout her career and develops the work at Mixit Print Studio, the Somerville workshop she co-founded in 1987 and where she continues to print, teach, and edition with her partners Jane Goldman and Randy Garber.
Breathing Space #4 was created by Catherine Kernan in 2015.
Breathing Space #4 depicts abstract.
Breathing Space #4 measures 111.8 × 76.2 cm.
![[abstract composition with diagonal woodgrain] by Gen Yamaguchi](https://1.api.artsmia.org/800/135949.jpg)