Falls

Falls depicts a waterfall, a subject that tests mokuhanga's capacity to render movement through static means. Brodbeck, working in the Great Lakes region, has access to numerous waterfall subjects in Michigan and the broader Upper Midwest, and the print likely isolates a section of falling water against rock or forest. Water in mokuhanga is conventionally rendered through white paper reserved against colored passages — the untouched washi surface carrying the visual weight of falling water while successive color blocks establish the surrounding rock face, mist, and foliage. Bokashi gradations in the mist zone at the base of the falls would soften the water's terminus into spray. Brodbeck's characteristic restraint would probably simplify the rock forms into broad planar values rather than detailed geological description. The overall composition may be vertical, following the water's direction of travel, with emphasis on the tonal contrast between the white of the falls and the deeper tones of wet rock.