planting new seeds spitzack woodblock woodcut mokuhanga print printmaking washi seattle art artist

A scene depicting the act of planting—either literal agricultural labor or figurative renewal, given the title's evocative phrasing. Agricultural and seasonal subjects have a long lineage in Japanese woodblock printing, from the rice-planting scenes of ukiyo-e to the rural landscapes of shin-hanga, though contemporary mokuhanga practitioners often invoke such imagery for its metaphorical resonance rather than ethnographic interest. The water-based pigments characteristic of mokuhanga, brushed into dampened washi with a baren, produce the soft, atmospheric color fields well-suited to outdoor subjects with extended tonal ranges of sky, soil, and foliage. Bokashi gradations, achieved by varying pigment density along a single brush stroke on the block, render gradients that flat industrial color cannot. Spitzack's award at the 2024 International Mokuhanga Conference in Echizen recognizes a contemporary American practice that has engaged seriously with these traditional techniques while applying them to subjects—personal, autobiographical, sometimes metaphorical—that diverge from the historical genres of bijin-ga, yakusha-e, and meisho-e.