pondo 2025 ponderosa pine woodcut print woodblock printmaker charles spitzack tree mokuhanga shina plywood seattle art artist fine art contemporary

A study of a single ponderosa pine — Pondo being the colloquial name for Pinus ponderosa, the long-needled conifer characteristic of inland Pacific Northwest forests. The print is identified as mokuhanga on shina plywood, the Japanese basswood-faced plywood used by many contemporary Western printmakers as a substitute for the traditional yamazakura cherry block. Shina is softer than cherry but holds fine detail and is widely available outside Japan, which has made it a default block material for the contemporary American mokuhanga movement that Spitzack participates in. Single-tree compositions are an established subject in Japanese printmaking, where individual pines and cherries are rendered as portrait studies; the genre extends into kacho-e (bird-and-flower) territory when treated decoratively. A ponderosa's distinctive branching pattern and bark plates give the cutter clear linear and tonal divisions to work with. Within Spitzack's 2025 catalog, this print places him in the regional landscape tradition alongside his Port Townsend boatyard work and his moonlit barn studies.