Untitled work by Katherine Kenal

Made during Kenal's tenure in MI-LAB's 2024 Basic Training Program A, this untitled print reflects the curricular emphasis on traditional water-based mokuhanga as practiced in Echizen workshops. Residency works frequently employ a limited block count — often two to four — to allow concentrated attention on each stage of carving, inking with rice paste and pigment, and impression by hand baren rather than press. The Untitled designation is characteristic of practice prints, where the artist's purpose is to internalize the rhythm of Japanese printmaking rather than to publish a finished editioned work. Kenal's print would have been pulled on Echizen washi, a paper with sufficient wet strength to accept multiple impressions without tearing. Within her Canadian studio practice, the residency output forms a discrete body of work shaped by direct contact with master printers and the material vocabulary specific to a centuries-old regional tradition.