Pine 12

"Pine 12" continues the Pine cycle through which Manami Ito has developed her drypoint vocabulary. Tagged among the Trees works, the print likely concentrates on a single specimen or close grouping of pines, isolating the trunk and limbs against a quieter ground. Drypoint suits this kind of subject: the burr-rich line registers the rough scaling of pine bark, the pinpoint accumulation of needles, and the soft outer edges where foliage dissolves into air. Thousands of individual marks, drawn directly into the copper with a steel needle, accumulate into a dense yet luminous tone. Because drypoint plates wear quickly under press pressure, editions in this medium are typically small, lending each impression slight variations in inking that suit Ito's slow, observational approach. The print sits within her broader study of garden trees rooted in her Tottori upbringing and Kyoto training.