2014 Brooklyn Botanic Garden Sakura Matsuri – Lecture and Demonstration

[From 1996 to 2016 I demonstrated Japanese woodblock technique to crowds of garden visitors at the Cherry Blossom Festival, culminating in an exhibition of botanical work at the Steinhart Gallery in 2008.]

Delirious Birds and Bees, 2007, mokuhanga woodcut on washi, 26 x 26 inches
Delirious Birds and Bees, 2007, mokuhanga woodcut on washi, 26 x 26 inches

Sunday, April 27 from 1:30 to 2:15  Main Auditorium

Since 1996 these yearly demonstrations have been an opportunity for the public to gain an understanding of the technical skill that goes into traditional Japanese printing, mokuhanga. It is a water-based woodblock method printed by hand, moku means wood, and hanga can be roughly translated as printmaking. It is the technique that was used to make the famous ukiy0-e “prints of the floating world.” Developed during the Edo period (1603-1868), this woodblock technique was used to print everything from books to advertisements, including the prints of Hokusai, Hiroshige and Utamaro. The artists supplied the drawings and a group of expert craftsmen, organized by a publisher, cut the blocks and printed the color blocks one at a time to create these wonderful Japanese prints.

For more information visit the Garden’s website Brooklyn Botanic Garden website

Author: adminapril

April Vollmer is a New York artist who studied mokuhanga after receiving her Master of Fine Arts in printmaking at Hunter College. Her work has been shown widely and she teaches Japanese woodblock regularly at the Lower East Side Printshop. She has participated in many residencies including the Nagasawa Art Park in Japan, and was on the board of the first and second International Mokuhanga Conferences. Her book "Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop" was released in 2015 by Watson-Guptill.