Roadside
- Medium:
- Mokuhanga (woodblock print)
- Dimensions:
- 26 × 35.6 cm
- Image courtesy of
- Artist website
Description
Roadside is a mokuhanga landscape drawn from the ordinary edges of rural Michigan — grassy verges, ditches, volunteer shrubs, or the tree lines that border unpaved roads in the Great Lakes region. Where much landscape printmaking selects dramatic scenery, Brodbeck's choice of a roadside subject reflects her practice of finding formal and meditative value in unspectacular, overlooked terrain. Flat horizontal bands of color define the compositional zones — road surface, verge, hedgerow, sky — each built through separate block impressions with water-based pigments. The print likely rewards attention to the textures of ordinary vegetation, rendered through carved grain and selective bokashi rather than descriptive line.
More Prints by Mary Brodbeck
More Landscapes Prints
Lake Kugushi in Wakasa Province (Wakasa Kugushiko), from the series Souvenirs of Travel I (Tabi miyage dai isshu)"
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Autumn Maple Leaves at Takao, from the album Eight Views of Kyoto (Kyôto hakkei)
Woodblock print
The Beach at Kaiganji in Sanuki Province (Sanuki Kaiganji no hama), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)"
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
Tea Kettle, section of a sheet from the series "Mirror of Stone Rubbings of Views of the Provinces" (Kohon meihitsu ishizuri kagami)
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Roadside was created by Mary Brodbeck.
Roadside depicts landscapes.
Roadside measures 26 × 35.6 cm.