Alison Erickson

Alison Erickson, part of Reed's MANZ - Medal Art New Zealand series, honors the New Zealand jeweller and small-object maker. The mokuhanga portrait likely incorporates references to Erickson's vocabulary — wrought metalwork, repeated unit construction, body-scaled ornament — translated into the carved block's planar logic. Submitted to the juried international exhibition at the 2021 IMC in Nara under that year's sumi theme, the print would lean on black ink, with tonal range built through [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradients, layered impressions, and the variable pressure of the [baren](/glossary/baren) on dampened [washi](/glossary/washi) rather than the multi-block color stacking of [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e). [Kento](/glossary/kento) registration permits the close edge alignment suited to rendering small, precisely made objects on the printed page. As with the other MANZ portraits, Reed's strategy is to let the sitter's own discipline shape the carving and printing decisions, so that the print reads both as an act of homage and as a translation between two craft traditions — the metal worked at the bench and the block cut at the carving table.