Floating

Floating, dated 2020, likely continues Brodbeck's exploration of suspension and weightlessness — forms that exist between surfaces, unmoored from ground. The subject may be aquatic: lily pads or petals drifting on water, a morning mist hovering above a lake surface, or clouds reflected in still water so that the boundary between sky and ground dissolves. The 2020 date places this work in Brodbeck's mature period, when her technical control of mokuhanga's water-based pigments and [washi](/glossary/washi) surface was fully developed. A composition centered on floating would use the full tonal range of the medium, from near-bare washi for pale sky or reflected light to densely pigmented passages for depth below the water line. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations would be structural rather than decorative, creating the sense of light distributed through a medium — water or air — rather than falling on a solid surface. The overall register would be quiet and horizontal.