Blanket

Blanket, dated 2019 and catalogued under both Landscapes and Gardens, most likely depicts snow covering a garden or natural landscape. Snow is a challenging subject in mokuhanga because its whiteness is typically achieved through the bare washi surface rather than applied pigment — the printer works around the negative space rather than into it. Brodbeck would have used her woodblocks to lay in shadows and ground tone, allowing the untouched paper to read as snow. Bokashi gradations in cool grays and blue-grays would model the depth of the snowfield and the weight of accumulation in branches or vegetation. The garden framing suggests an intimate, enclosed space rather than an open field — perhaps a single shrub or dormant tree viewed from near. The title itself is tactile: snow as covering, as weight, as transformation of a familiar space into something quieter and simplified.