Jessica Turning

Jessica Turning depicts a figure mid-rotation, the body captured in a transitional pose that emphasizes the contrapposto twist between shoulders and hips. Lyon's mokuhanga practice is rooted in photographic source material translated through digital halftone processing into CNC-milled woodblocks, allowing tonal gradation that approaches the resolution of a continuous-tone photograph while retaining the matte, absorbent surface of [washi](/glossary/washi) printed by hand. The turning pose recalls the kinetic figure studies of Western life drawing more than the static frontality of historical [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga), yet the technique remains firmly within mokuhanga tradition: water-based pigments, hand-rubbed impressions, multiple registered blocks. As part of Lyon's extended figurative work with the model Jessica, this print belongs to a sequence in which a single sitter is observed across a range of postures, building a serial portrait in the manner of a sustained studio investigation. The image foregrounds Lyon's central preoccupation: reconciling the labor-intensive craft of traditional Japanese printmaking with the algorithmic image-making of contemporary digital tools.