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 printed by hand. The turning pose recalls the kinetic figure studies of Western life drawing more than the static frontality of historical 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.