seattle 2020 skycraper spitzack woodblock woodcut mokuhanga print printmaking washi seattle art

Dated 2020, this Seattle skyscraper print situates itself in the year Rainier Square Tower opened and the city's skyline reached a new vertical threshold. Spitzack likely renders the tower as a tall, narrow composition — a format that mirrors the [hashira-e](/glossary/hashira-e) pillar prints of the Edo period and emphasizes height through proportion alone. Mokuhanga's hand-rubbed [baren](/glossary/baren) impression allows for evenly saturated flat color across the building's curtain wall, while a [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradation along the sky can suggest Seattle's characteristic overcast light without resorting to atmospheric effects beyond the medium's range. The print reads as a contemporary [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e): a named place identified by its most recognizable form, rendered with the same clarity Hiroshige brought to Edo's pagodas. As one of several Spitzack prints engaging Seattle architecture, it situates his practice within the city's printmaking community while extending mokuhanga conventions to a 21st-century subject. His 2024 Echizen recognition reflects the technical control such large flat fields and clean geometric edges require.