Untitled

Mokuhanga's distinctive surface results from a chain of small material decisions made before the block ever touches paper. Wood is carved with a hangi-to and a small set of u-gouges to leave the image standing in relief; the artist must decide which lines and fields to keep and which to clear with the pressure of subsequent printing in mind. Pigment is mixed with rice paste (nori) and water and brushed onto the moist block. The dampened [kozo](/glossary/kozo) [washi](/glossary/washi) is registered against the [kento](/glossary/kento) marks — a corner notch and a straight edge cut into the block — and the impression is taken by hand with a [baren](/glossary/baren). This untitled print by Lee emerges from that whole sequence rather than from any single moment within it. As an editioning printmaker, Lee is fluent in registering multi-block editions to within fractions of a millimeter, and that craft fluency is the precondition for the more exploratory and dimensional work she pursues elsewhere.