
Stacks Image 29
by Julie Murphy
- Image courtesy of
- Artist website (Julie Murphy)
Description
Listed by a CMS-generated identifier on Julie Murphy's portfolio rather than a descriptive title, this work belongs to her ongoing mokuhanga output from her Irish studio. One of the technique's defining features is bokashi — the graduated tonal blend produced when pigment is applied unevenly across the block surface and then drawn outwards with a damp brush before printing. Each impression of a bokashi area is unique to that pull, since the pigment never sits identically on the block twice; this gives mokuhanga editions a slight variability that distinguishes them from mechanical reproductions. Murphy works in the European cohort of contemporary mokuhanga printmakers whose practice has grown largely outside Japan in the last two decades, sustained by international workshops, the IMC conferences, and the continued commercial supply of washi from Echizen and Mino. Her work continues the technique's adaptation beyond its historical ukiyo-e context.



