Untitled work by Pat Griffin

A second untitled woodblock by Griffin in the contemporary mokuhanga idiom. Practitioners in this tradition typically work at modest scales suited to the registration tolerances of the kento system, often closer to the chuban or smaller oban formats than the larger sheets favoured by Western relief printmakers. The water-based process Griffin works in was codified for ukiyo-e production in the eighteenth century with the development of full-colour nishiki-e, and remains technically demanding: each colour requires its own carved block, dampened paper, and careful registration, with pigment applied directly to the block with brushes rather than rolled. Untitled works are common in contemporary mokuhanga practice, where artists frequently allow tonal relationships, paper texture and the trace of the baren to carry meaning rather than naming a subject. Griffin's participation in the international IMC network places her work in dialogue with practitioners across Europe, North America and Japan.