John Amoss

Artist's comments ...

You may be asking: "WHO who the heck this guy is..." Well, he is a Tanuki - a wild raccoon-dog from Japan. They are sometimes called badgers, but they look more like a N. American raccoon. Although they still roam wild, they are also raised for the fur industry.

The Tanuki I have portrayed here is the folklore version. His is known as a trickster in many traditional Japanese stories. One such story describes him as a character that beckons people to come share a drink with him. It would be considered bad luck to refuse a Tanuki his wish. As a result, stautes of him can be found in front of taverns.

Tanuki sports a lotus leaf hat and carries a saki jug on one hand and a bartab in the other. He is also known for his bulbous belly and outlandish testicles on which he beats like a drum. I assume that he has had a drink or two by that point!

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TECHNICAL:

• 13 impressions on 7 sealed basswood blocks.
• Paper: Rives natural heavyweight (see conclusions below)
• Pigments: mixed from dry
• Paste: 1/2 corn starch, 1/2 rice flour
• Barens: Yoshida, Murasaki, home-made

Here is a breakdown of my printing schedule:

• DAY ONE Cut and moisten paper.
• DAY TWO

1. Light gray keyblock (block A)- Med. paste/light pigment/ med. pressure. This is for registration purposes only. I want a rich black line, but I've had problems printing strong colors initially as the pigment has a tendency of offsetting onto later blocks, etc.
2. Light gray texture (block B)- Light paste/med. intensity pigment (on the "dry" side)/ practically no pressure. I used a flat weak home-made baren and VERY VERY light pressure so that only the paper's texture would come into contact with the printing surface. It took some practice not to make baren suji marks.
3. Light yellow beta block- (block C)- A lot of paste, light pigment, a lot of pressure. Normally this is the first impression to be used in order to kill the surface texture allowing for a sharper image. However, since I wished the previous color (#2) to pick up the texture of the paper, I waited until now to do this.
4. Light yellow hat, jug, bartab- (block D)- A lot of paste, med. pigment, heavy pressure.
5. Light purple over fur area- (block B)- No paste, med. pigment, med. pressure.

• DAY THREE

6. Brown fur- (block E) No paste, med. pigment, med. pressure.
7. Med. purple- (block F) No paste, med. pigment, med. pressure.
8. Dark purple, shadow on jug and hat- (block G) Med. paste, med. pigment, heavy pressure.
9. Bokashi (graduation) on top of hat (block D)- A lot of paste, med. pigment, heavy pressure

• DAY FOUR

10. Red backgroundA- (block F) Heavy paste, a lot of pigment brushed horiz., hard pressure.
11. Red backgroundB- (block F) Same as above except pigment was brushed on vertically.
12. Black keyblockA- (block A) No paste, pure sumi, a lot of pressure.
13. Black keyblockB- (block A) Same as above.

• DAY FIVE, SIX Dry in between sheets of cardboard in room with dehumidifier.
• DAY SEVEN Title, sign, date.

CONCLUSIONS:

• NEGATIVES: I was unhappy how the keyblock registered. After I fooled around with the kento, I realized that the paper grew width-wise between the first impression to the last. I believe that this could be a result of my using a short-fibered Western paper rather than washi. In every other respect, the paper did behave OK although I had to use a cover sheet between the baren and paper to minimize pilling on the back of the print.
• POSITIVES: I was happy with the texture. The second impression picking up the paper's texture gave an interesting contrast to the following 'blotchy' effect of using no paste. It is close to Kiyoshi Saito's and other Shin-hanga effects I think. I think that overlapping layers of blotchyness really adds interest especially to large areas of color.

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