Color Woodcut Demo by Yoshi Nakagawa
Yoshi will be printing a color woodblock for the first Thursday demonstration, which coincides with Yoshida Chizuko’s current exhibition. Her two-color print called Saba or “mackerel” in Japanese, is her favorite fish to eat. The image is pre-carved on Shina plywood and hand printed with oil-based ink on washi (mulberry paper). Come see the live printing process with brayer, baren and spoon. Her tools and other woodcuts will also be displayed.
Yoshi Nakagawa grew up in Portland and is a Tacoma based visual artist. Specializing in printmaking since 1999, she pulled her first print at the University of Puget Sound, and honed her craft in Seattle and Oaxaca, Mexico. Her artwork is influenced by patterns of the natural world and Japanese textiles, along with her experiences living in Oaxaca, Japan, and the Pacific Northwest. She has exhibited and taught workshops nationally and internationally. yoshinakagawa.com
Moku-Hanga Demo by Yuji Hiratsuka
Yuji will demonstrate the centuries old art form of Japanese Moku-Hanga woodblock printmaking. This woodblock printing technique originated in China and then moved to Japan as a way to spread printed texts and create Japan’s traditional color-washed prints such as The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai. With its transparent water-based pigments, which are applied with special brushes and printed by hand, Moku-Hanga allows for soft and painterly relief prints. Yuji will show all aspects of Moku-Hanga process, Japanese water-based woodblock printing.
Yuji Hiratsuka was born in Osaka, Japan. He has a B.S. in Art Education from Tokyo Gakugei University, and degrees in printmaking from New Mexico State University (MA) and Indiana University (MFA). He has been teaching printmaking and drawing since 1987 and until his retirement in 2022 served as a Professor of printmaking at Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. Hiratsuka has received numerous international awards. Since 2010 he has had 13 solo shows in the US, as well as in Korea, Canada and Northern Ireland. Some of the public collections that include Hiratsuka’s art are The British Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, Tokyo Central Museum, Panstwowe Museum in Poland; The House of Humor and Satire in Bulgaria, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cleveland Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, New York Public Library, The Library of Congress and The Smithsonian’s Museum of Asian Art.