The conference promises to be a great opportunity to meet mokuhanga practitioners from all over the world as well as support beleagured Japan and its artisans. The IMC2011 conference was initiated by those associated with Nagasawa Art Park Residency which has annually offered intensives in mokuhanga for about 10 years.

The conference will feature a wonderful array of traditional workshops and demos in Kyoto, followed by a series of international speakers for the second half to be held on Awaji Island, near Kobe.

I will be presenting a paper regarding artists practicing mokuhanga internationally based on my experience organizing two mokuhanga exhibitions in Toronto in 2008 and at Printopolis in 2010, as well as a survey of a number of artists I’ve discovered through the web. (See recap of Printopolis below)

I’m very pleased that I’ve been accepted into the International Mokuhanga exhibition in Kyoto, which will accompany the Conference.

LINK
The 1st International Mokuhanga Conference

Please stay tuned for a report about the conference and my visit to my papermaker Satoko Ueno, in Nagano prefecture.

CLASSES  AT MokuhangaWorkshop UPCOMING
Soon I will start holding private classes in my own studio, aiming for FALL 2011.  Currently I’m renovating my space to make it suitable to accommodate up to 5 students at a time.

I am also planning to work on my (ahem) digital communication situation in order to develop, a “web presence”. (Oh well,what can you expect from someone who loves the 19th century.)

TEACHING MOKUHANGA

OAC Artists in Education – March and April 2011
Under the Ontario Arts Council, Artists in Education program, I held 25 hour mokuhanga programs at three Toronto high schools, Malvern C.I., Runnymede C.I. and Northview Heights S.S. Teaching mokuhanga to 14-17 year olds can be a challenge but with some organization and attention to maintaining the essential elements of the traditional medium I think the workshops were amazingly successful.  It didn’t hurt to point out that that lineage of manga and anime points directly to ukiyo e prints.

Victoria Cowan’s Studio Q
I held a mokuhanga workshop  at Victoria’s downtown studio in January and February 2011. Victoria has a wonderful studio environment and she and husband Brian Smith make a fantastic creative team. We had a full turnout and dedicated students who worked hard and accomplished much. It was a lot of fun, for me too.

PRINTOPOLIS October 2010
Congratulations (somewhat belated) to Open Studio for a fantastic event. Hopefully it’s a harbinger of more equally wonderful outreach events in the future.

Many thanks to Nancy Jacobi of the Japanese Paper Place for graciously making her gallery available for the ‘Mokuhanga and Beyond’ Exhibition. Special thanks go to Sigrid Blohm for her dedicated assistance with mounting the show. Despite pouring rain and a stalled Queen West streetcar, April Vollmer and I had about 75% turnout to our Mokuhanga Demonstration.

Photos were taken at the demonstration and April also took excellent photos of the exhibiton.Thanks April ! !

View April's photos