Untitled

An untitled mokuhanga print by Karen Pittman, produced through the Japanese water-based woodblock process. Printing proceeds by applying water-thinned pigment with a hake brush, adding a small quantity of nori (rice paste) directly to the block to act as a binder, then placing dampened washi against the inked surface and burnishing the verso with a [baren](/glossary/baren). Each color requires a separately carved block registered against fixed [kento](/glossary/kento) marks. The method is technically demanding but produces a pigment integration with the paper fiber that is characteristic of the medium. As an untitled work within Pittman's practice, the image is positioned outside the descriptive conventions of historical Japanese print genres — neither [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga), [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e), nor [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) — while drawing on their procedural inheritance. Her selection for the juried IMC Americas exhibition staged in Echizen in 2024 confirms her inclusion in the contemporary network of North American mokuhanga artists working in a continuous, if expanded, lineage from the Edo-period workshop tradition.