IMC 2024 Echizen submission

Created for the 2024 International Mokuhanga Conference (IMC), this print was made for the Echizen-related portfolio tied to the triennial gathering, which convenes mokuhanga practitioners from across the globe. Echizen, in Fukui Prefecture, is one of Japan's longstanding centers of [washi](/glossary/washi) production, and prints made for such exchanges are typically pulled on [kozo](/glossary/kozo)-based sheets selected for their long-fiber strength and tolerance for multiple registrations without distortion. Mack-Watkins's mokuhanga practice pairs water-based pigments applied with the [baren](/glossary/baren) on traditional Japanese supports with imagery drawn from her Southern American upbringing, often centering Black girlhood, vernacular dress, and questions of identity, beauty, and conformity. Conference and Echizen-paper submissions tend to be small-edition works that demonstrate an artist's command of the flat color fields, [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations, and visible woodgrain that define the medium. The piece situates Mack-Watkins within a generation of printmakers — represented in collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture — using the mokuhanga vocabulary to address subjects beyond its Edo-period origins.