storm drain spitzack woodblock woodcut mokuhanga print printmaking washi seattle art
- Image courtesy of
- Artist website (Charles Spitzack)
Description
"Storm Drain" turns the mokuhanga medium toward urban infrastructure, with the print's Rain tag suggesting a depiction of water entering a street grate during a downpour. The subject extends the Japanese tradition of weather-conscious printmaking — Hiroshi Yoshida and Kawase Hasui both treated rain as a primary atmospheric subject — into the specifically American genre of street-level industrial detail. Mokuhanga's water-based pigments handle wet surfaces with a fluency oil-based inks cannot match: bokashi gradations on dampened washi produce the soft, irregular transitions characteristic of water on pavement, and the layered registration of multiple blocks allows for the dark recesses of the drain to read against the wet asphalt around it. As a Seattle-based artist, Spitzack works in a city where rain is a defining environmental fact, and the print belongs to a strain of his practice that treats Pacific Northwest weather and urban surfaces through a traditional Japanese technique.
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More Rain Prints
Rain Shower at Shо̄no, from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tо̄kaidо̄ (Tо̄kaidо̄ gojusan tsugi)
1962
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Shōno: Driving Rain (Shōno hakuu), from the series Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsugi no uchi), also known as the First Tōkaidō or Great Tōkaidō
c. 1833-36
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Omiya in Rain (Ame no Omiya)
Ame no Omiya
1930
Color woodblock print; oban
Evening Shower at Teradomari (Teradomari no yau), from the series "Souvenirs of Travel, Second Series (Tabi miyage dai nishu)"
Teradomari no yau
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
Frequently Asked Questions
storm drain spitzack woodblock woodcut mokuhanga print printmaking washi seattle art was created by Charles Spitzack.
storm drain spitzack woodblock woodcut mokuhanga print printmaking washi seattle art depicts rain.