danger cat charlie nelson spitzack woodblock woodcut mokuhanga print printmaking washi seattle art

Titled around a cat named Charlie Nelson, this print belongs to the long mokuhanga lineage of feline subjects that runs from Kuniyoshi's anthropomorphic cat prints to contemporary kacho-e adaptations. Spitzack likely portrays the specific animal with characterful attention rather than as a generic motif, the title's reference to a named cat suggesting a portrait sensibility uncommon in Edo-period work but well suited to contemporary practice. The mokuhanga technique handles fur convincingly through fine key-block linework combined with subtle bokashi gradations across the body, where the baren can produce the soft tonal transitions that water-based pigments allow on absorbent washi. The 'danger' element of the title hints at a posture or expression — perhaps an arched back, fixed gaze, or compressed coil — that gives the composition its narrative charge. Within Spitzack's body of work, this print suggests range beyond architecture and landscape into animal portraiture, and reflects the American mokuhanga movement's willingness to treat personal and domestic subjects with the same technical seriousness traditionally reserved for landscape and figure prints.