Nom de Plume

Now doesn’t THAT sound all art gallery-ish.
I have a ton of unframed prints I haven’t posted up at the house. Those that come with frames, I lug down to the shack and put up on the many bare walls. Which is where I am, and where my digital camera is, so ….
Eichii Kotozuka. I’m not […]

She has the rather unfortunate name of Peaches, but she’s really a love.

Well, not yet. But soon. Steve’s depressed. “You gave me such a great birthday,” he says. “But I have no clue what to get you.”
“Want suggestions?”
“No, because then it’s not a surprise for you. I mean, I wasn’t expecting any of the stuff you got me, you just went and got stuff you knew I’d […]

It’s been a long, long time. I’m chock full of excuses for not updating the blog, but basically it comes down to one thing: Sheer laziness. Here’s a brief recap:
1) Amazingly, the ranch didn’t burn. The fire was only about two miles away, but everyone stayed and were fine. I was pretty useless for a […]

I just bought this Toshi Yoshida …

… and this Kiyoshi Nagai …

… and it occurs to me that I haven’t posted any of the prints I’ve bought in the past 6 to 8 months. So here they are.
A Mikumo print–which confuses me, because I thought Mikumo was a publisher. I like this print, but […]

A while ago, I got an e-mail from someone who wanted to buy this Sekino print, which he had seen here:

I wasn’t that interested in selling, but he was really nice. We started e-mailing about Sekino prints. I sent him pictures of the other four I have, and he encouraged me to post pictures on […]

I have become totally addicted to auctions.
There’s a place in Renton that auctions off estates, and I’ve been going quite regularly–coming home laden with stuff I don’t need (and in many cases, I confess, that I don’t really want). It’s easy to get caught up in the heat of it all. The first one […]

I’ve been tasked by Literate Kitten to come up with 10 things I like that start with the letter “A” (because the opposite of “Z”?) So …
1. Aardvarks. Well, not the actual creature, but the word. With that double a, it reminds me of classrooms and who got to beat out the erasers in second […]

As you well know, I have an obsession with Japanese shin hanga and sosaku hanga woodblock prints. And I finally got my hands on a copy of Helen Merritt’s book, Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: The Early Years, which puts 20th century woodblocks into historical perspective. The second part of the book is a bit more […]

Well, maybe one and a half. There is masking tape residue and staining at the top, but it’s pretty localized and the tape itself peeled up easily.
I have coveted this one for a while.

I like this too.

This one I wasn’t quite so wild about at first–it was part of the lot–but it’s now growing on […]

Once again proving I am out of control, here are three prints I just had framed. BTW, I wasn’t sure if the Toshi Yoshida was pencil signed; it is.

Mom also sent me this Sekino bijin-ja for my birthday. Apparently, it was my grandfather’s favorite print. Hmmm, wonder why …

Also, Steve got me all sorts of […]

So those two Koitsu prints I bought off eBay? Stupid. They are completely glued to backing.
I am now performing surgery.

I’ve been a little out of control lately.
In addition to the Sekiguchi, I’ve also bought two Koitsu prints (either a really smart eBay buy or a really stupid one–I won’t know until I get them), a strange little bijin-ja that I know absolutely nothing about, and a Toshi Yoshida (a lifetime strike, but don’t […]

I’ve finally managed to articulate what it is I love about Japanese shin hana and sosaku hanga prints. Looking at them induces (in me at least) that sense of being nostalgic for the very moment you’re in. Just like autumn.
In any case.
Picked this lovely Sekiguchi print.

Another eBay purchase.

The watanabe “sausage seal” on the right hand margin dates it to between 1929 and 1942. I haven’t seen any other prints online with the bottom set of characters on the left hand margin(as below). As far as I can tell, using the wonderful Shin Hanga Date Translation, it reads, “Made 17 […]

Just in case you’re curious, here’s a dedicated blog.
The first picture is of animal prints in the snow. Which makes one wonder whether winter activities are also conducted in the buff.
Sounds cold.

Harry is a delightful woodblock printmaker who lives in England. I saw some of his prints online at baren forum, and then visited his site directly. I really, really like a lot of this–and so I asked whether I could buy some of his work. And lo and behold! I’m Harry’s first customer across the […]

For those of us living in South Seattle, good picture framing services are hard to come by without major traveling. I had been using the Columbia City Art Gallery’s services, but they have very limited hours — and the guy was never there during the four hours a day they are open. Then I stumbled […]

This is for Barbara.

Mother is slowly giving me all the Japanese prints that her parents collected in Japan. Here’s the latest, another Sekino.