2024 charles spitzack merican cheese america the dollar money prayer flag emoji woodcut print woodblock mokuhanga seattle art artist relief printmaking lino linocut

This 2024 print assembles a vocabulary of American symbols — processed cheese, dollar bills, prayer flags, and emoji — into what reads as a compressed commentary on commerce, devotion, and digital culture. The juxtaposition of sacred and consumer iconography places the work in a tradition of satirical printmaking, here translated into the slow, layered process of mokuhanga rather than the quick reproduction of relief or screen techniques. Producing such a composition in water-based woodblock requires deliberate color separation across multiple cherry or shina blocks, with each symbol likely registered as a discrete chromatic unit. The use of washi and baren-printed pigment lends the imagery a tactile weight at odds with the throwaway nature of its source material, which appears to be much of the point. Spitzack's engagement with overtly contemporary, vernacular subject matter distinguishes his practice from American mokuhanga artists who concentrate on landscape, and reflects the medium's expanding range as practiced by recipients of recognition at the International Mokuhanga Conference.