Untitled

An untitled woodblock print from Karen Pittman, working in the mokuhanga tradition of water-based, hand-printed Japanese woodblock. In a typical mokuhanga sequence, a sheet of [washi](/glossary/washi) is dampened to a controlled moisture content, registered against carved [kento](/glossary/kento) corner-and-edge marks on each successive block, and burnished from the reverse with a [baren](/glossary/baren) wrapped in a bamboo sheath that is replaced periodically as it wears. The result is a print whose color sits within rather than upon the paper, with edges softened by the migration of water through the fiber. Without an assigned title, the work is best understood through its formal qualities and its place within Pittman's broader output. Her selection for the IMC Americas juried exhibition in Echizen — Fukui Prefecture's centuries-old papermaking center — situates her among contemporary practitioners whose work is distinct from both the commercial [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) workshops of Edo and the artist-led sōsaku-hanga movement of the twentieth century, while drawing on the material and procedural conventions of both.