Colorful artwork titled 'Heartbeat' depicting two stylized palm trees against a vibrant pink, orange, and green background with mountains in the distance.

Titled Heartbeat, this print depicts two stylized palm trees against a multi-color gradient background incorporating pink, orange, and green tones, with mountains visible in the distance. The vivid color field suggests extensive use of [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi), requiring multiple wiped impressions to layer the pink-orange-green transitions across the picture plane. The composition follows a [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) structure of a foreground motif — the paired palm trees — set against a deep recessional landscape of mountains and sky. The stylization of the palms — flat silhouettes rather than detailed renderings — reflects mokuhanga's preference for graphic clarity over illusionistic depth. Spitzack's color choices push beyond the muted natural palettes typical of historical Japanese landscape prints toward a contemporary American chromatic vocabulary. The work sits within his broader engagement with tropical and coastal American subjects, transposed through the inherited Japanese vocabulary of layered registered blocks, hand-rubbed impressions with the [baren](/glossary/baren), and water-based pigments printed on absorbent [washi](/glossary/washi).