Sugibashira (Barking) (100/100)

Printed as the final impression in an edition of 100, this oban mokuhanga takes its title from sugibashira, Japanese cedar pillars, with the parenthetical "barking" adding an unexpected animating quality to the wooden subject. Joshua Rome may be referencing the way cedar bark peels, cracks, or splits with sounds that suggest life within the timber, or he may be playing with the visual similarity between bark texture and animal skin. The water-based woodblock technique, itself dependent on cherry-wood blocks, creates a material kinship between the printing medium and the cedar subject. Rome builds the image through layered pigment passes on washi paper, each layer adding textural complexity. The full edition of 100 impressions represents a significant commitment of labor, each print individually hand-rubbed with the baren in a process that takes the artist physically through the same motions a hundred times.