2024 spitzack dodo bird imposter woodcut woodblock mokuhanga seattle art artist print printmaking

This 2024 print engages the kacho-e tradition of bird imagery while introducing a conceptual twist through its subject: the dodo, an extinct flightless bird native to Mauritius. The title's reference to 'imposter' suggests Spitzack is playing with the genre's conventions — substituting a vanished species for the cranes, sparrows, and birds-of-paradise that populate classical Japanese bird-and-flower compositions. As a mokuhanga work, the print would have been produced using water-based pigments applied to washi through baren rubbing rather than mechanical pressing. The image likely incorporates flat color planes characteristic of Japanese woodblock practice, possibly with bokashi gradations to suggest atmosphere or feathering. The piece sits within Spitzack's Seattle-based practice and reflects the broader American mokuhanga movement, which has adapted Japanese techniques to contemporary subjects often inflected with humor or irony absent from traditional ukiyo-e. The 2024 date places it in the body of work surrounding his International Mokuhanga Conference recognition that year.