Untitled work by Karen Pittman

An untitled work by Karen Pittman, this print exemplifies her engagement with the mokuhanga tradition as practiced by contemporary North American printmakers. Without a descriptive title to guide interpretation, the image directs the viewer toward surface, color, and form rather than narrative. The water-based pigments characteristic of mokuhanga sink into the washi rather than sitting atop it, producing the soft, absorbed quality that distinguishes the technique from oil-based Western relief printing. Pittman's selection for the International Mokuhanga Conference Americas exhibition in Echizen in 2024 situates this work within an active dialogue between American practitioners and the Japanese craft centers that continue to produce baren, brushes, and handmade washi. Untitled prints in contemporary mokuhanga frequently function as compositional studies, allowing the artist to investigate registration, layering, and bokashi gradation without the framing pressure of a representational subject.