Almost There

A companion to Rome's earlier "Almost There," this second woodblock print returns to the same conceptual territory — proximity, anticipation, a state of near-completion — with what appears to be a different compositional or chromatic resolution. The iterative relationship between the two works reflects a practice common among mokuhanga artists of working through a subject in multiple editions, with each impression informed by the technical and conceptual findings of its predecessor. Differences in pigment density, block carving, or [washi](/glossary/washi) selection between the two prints materially enact the theme of incremental approach that both titles invoke.