Fragments (3)

Fragments (3) (2025) is a unique mixed-media print on plywood, in which a carved wooden panel functions simultaneously as relief block and final support. Where mokuhanga sends pigment from a carved cherry or shina block into washi via baren pressure, here Desforges retains the block itself as the finished work, then layers watercolour, acrylic and pastel directly onto the printed and carved surface. The pastel passages — dry, drawn, opaque — sit against the absorbent watercolour and the harder acrylic in a way that exposes the differing behaviour of each medium on a wood ground. The work belongs to a parallel, non-editioned strand of the Fragments series, related compositionally to the mokuhanga prints of the same year but produced as singular objects rather than runs. This use of the carved block as a hybrid printing-and-painting substrate is consistent with Desforges's wider technical range across mokulito, etching and photo-process printmaking, and with her role as a Print Technician at WYPW, where she works fluently across multiple matrix types.