Keiko Hara
Topophilia- Red Shoes, 12 x 10 x 10 feet, 2018. Mokuhanga printed hanging scrolls, glass, and reflective shapes installation,
Exhibited at The Belview Art Museum " Glasstastic", The combination of glass with a translucent Washi paper interplay with lights.
“My goal is to articulate the printed colors to create an infinite space and depth while keeping the integrity of the flat surface of the work.”
Keiko Hara was raised and educated in Japan and came to the USA to pursue her art, completing an MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1976. She has lived and worked in Walla Walla, Washington, for many years. She taught art at Whitman College, Walla Walla, and also was chair of the Department of Fine Art there. While at the college she instigated a major in printed artists’ books and, together with colleagues, she still organizes an annual Mokuhanga workshop.
Keiko’s art embraces many mediums—painting in oil and watercolor; installations using glass; and printmaking using a wide range of techniques. Currently she uses Mokuhanga and stencil techniques together on washi paper combined with light, glass and other multi-media in 3-d installations.
Where do you reside between technical and intuitive in your work as an artist using colors?
I often choose to work on printmaking imagery with colors at the same time as I am painting and drawing. The printmaking process constantly gives me new possibilities to challenge myself, to further investigate color. The bridge between my technical and intuitive processes is a strong and fluid one: it enables me to create unexpected colors which I cannot find in the palettes, to find something I never imagined I could discover. And then there is the trail by which it happened. Following that trail leads me to the possibility of creating another new color, yet to be discovered.
I work with mono prints and monotypes often, rather than with large edition prints. Each individual work is a new opportunity to challenge myself, to further investigate color, to explore my theme, to focus on aesthetic qualities only achievable through the printed process. Each work takes me to undiscovered dimensions of mind and space.
Topophilia 5 - 100 Gates, 84 x 48 x 18 inches for each gate, 1994,. Exhibited at the Tacoma Art Museum
Multi-media installation with monoprints (Mokuhanga and stencil printing on Washi paper) mounted on wood structure. Fifty Pairs of gates fill the exhibition space: viewers can walk through them in whatever direction and route they choose.. On each ladder-like structure, thirty-six monoprints are mounted.
“At first, my interest in researching water-based arts and crafts in Japan was because of environmental concerns and thoughts of safety as an artist and a teacher. However, I have discovered that they offer unlimited possibilities for exploration and innovation and can absolutely further my interests for examining space—visually, mentally, and emotionally.”
Verse Ma and Ki -memory, 7 x 2 feet, 2016. Mokuhanga monoprint with collage on Washi paper, Two panels are hung back to back.
This is a part of the multimedia installation exhibited at The Kentler International Drawing Center, Brooklyn NY.
What are the direct references, research, or aspects of history that your work includes?
My Mokuhanga woodblock printmaking process is based on Ukiyo-e which flourished in Japan from the late 17th to late 19th century. I have studied, researched and had a chance to collaborate with Mr. Tadashi Toda, Ukiyo-e master printer in Kyoto. He printed the first American contemporary artists’ Ukiyo-e woodblock prints published through the Crown Point Press.
My other process, stenciling, is one that came to prominence in the same time period in Japan. It was used to apply dye colors through exquisitely cut stencils to decorate fabric for kimono.
After living in the USA for 15 years, I returned to Japan to research traditional arts and crafts that use water-based color pigments. In 1987, I received a Research Teaching Fellowship at Doshisya University in Kyoto. There I was able to research and learn Ukioy–e printing by visiting museums and other places where it was still practiced. This woodblock printing technique is a familiar art form in Japanese culture and, although I was introduced to it as a public-school student, there was still no place to learn the techniques at a professional level. Returning to Japan again at different times, I have continued my research into other arts and crafts that are water-based, such as karacho printing, book binding, paper making, and scroll mounting. And I have organized various workshops, artists-exchange projects and exhibitions between Japan and the USA.
At first, my interest in researching water-based arts and crafts in Japan was because of environmental concerns and thoughts of safety as an artist and a teacher. However, as I have developed the use of these water-based color pigments and media more deeply, I have discovered that they offer unlimited possibilities for exploration and innovation and can absolutely further my interests for examining space—visually, mentally, and emotionally.
How does the printmaking process itself relate to how you work with color?
My approach to color is to achieve spatial relationships with the layering of pigments using the Mokuhanga and stencil-printing processes.
Printing with Mokuhanga, I apply color with a Hake brush onto the wet, carved woodblock surface. Then I place dampened Washi paper face down on the block and rub the back of the paper with a baren, to transfer the color. The transferred colors are pressed down into the Washi paper. They become more intricate and more and more saturated as I overlay further colors. This is the beauty of water-based color; it creates these vivid and characteristically clear colors that no other printing process and media can achieve.
In contrast, my stencil printing colors remain raised on the surface of the paper. It is combining colors applied by both these hand-printing processes together that creates my desired dimensional results with a wide range of transparencies and subtle layerings. I make my own colors with pigments, binders, and additive materials in order to find the desired consistency for each color.
My goal is to articulate the printed colors to create an infinite space and depth while keeping the integrity of the flat surface of the work.
Verse Space- Light, 30 x41 inches, 2020. Monoprint, and Mokuhanga print on washi paper with collage.
“The transferred colors become more intricate and more and more saturated as I overlay further colors. This is the beauty of water-based color; it creates these vivid and characteristically clear colors that no other printing process and media can achieve.”