bus stop spitzack woodblock woodcut mokuhanga print printmaking washi seattle art

A scene of urban or suburban transit infrastructure — likely a roadside shelter, signpost, or waiting figure — translated into mokuhanga's flat color planes and registered linework. The subject continues a long tradition within Japanese woodblock printing of depicting modes of transportation, from the kago palanquins of Edo-period meisho-e through the trains and trams that appeared in shin-hanga prints of the early twentieth century. Spitzack updates this lineage with contemporary American urban iconography. Compositionally, a bus stop print would likely emphasize geometric structures — the rectangular shelter, vertical signpost, horizontal sidewalk — set against the softer organic environment of street trees or cloud-filled sky, with bokashi gradation used to create atmospheric depth. The kentō registration system enables the precise alignment necessary for built-environment imagery. This piece demonstrates how Spitzack adapts a historically Japanese visual language to record the everyday textures of American Pacific Northwest civic life, consistent with his Seattle-based practice.