2024 spitzack fort worden butterfly cosmos flower blooming fly bug woodcut print woodblock mokuhanga seattle art artist relief printmaking lino linocut
- Image courtesy of
- Artist website (Charles Spitzack)
This 2024 print pairs a butterfly cosmos in bloom with a fly, a composition that places the work squarely within the [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e) tradition of insects-and-flowers studies. The cosmos — an annual prized for its open, daisy-like flower head — and the visiting fly together compress a small ecological transaction into a single frame, recalling the close-observation impulse of historical Japanese flower-and-insect prints while taking a Pacific Northwest garden as its source. In water-based mokuhanga, the challenge of such a subject lies in registering the fine structures of petals, stamens, and insect legs without losing the medium's characteristic softness; Spitzack would likely have reserved a dedicated block for the linear elements, with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) reserved for the gradation across petal surfaces. The print belongs to a Fort Worden-rooted body of work that includes tree studies and bird-and-flower compositions, and reflects the contemporary American mokuhanga movement's tendency to apply traditional Japanese genre categories to local flora and fauna rather than imported subjects.
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
2024 spitzack fort worden butterfly cosmos flower blooming fly bug woodcut print woodblock mokuhanga seattle art artist relief printmaking lino linocut was created by Charles Spitzack.
2024 spitzack fort worden butterfly cosmos flower blooming fly bug woodcut print woodblock mokuhanga seattle art artist relief printmaking lino linocut depicts birds & flowers and insects.
