Kickstarter

Konnichiwa!  My name is Tina Fish Lutz.  I am a printmaker living in College Hill, Mississippi just north of Oxford. I am entering my third year in the M.F.A. printmaking program at the University of Mississippi.  I have been awarded an artist residency at the MI-LAB, Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory, Artist-in-Residence program.  www.endeavor.or.jp/mi-lab/  MI-LAB  provides residence and studio space at Lake Kawaguchi, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan and a gallery/workshop studio in Tokyo to introduce Japanese Mokuhanga woodblock printmaking skills to a wider audience and to provide advanced training to international print artists, teachers, researchers and academicians.

I will travel to Japan this summer to study with Mokuhanga artists in the Japanese tradition.  This opportunity will support research for my upcoming M.F.A. printmaking thesis exhibition (May 2013) at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi.  I will be able to focus on this technique without the pressures of a western print shop for one month in the foothills of Mt. Fuji and create a body of limited edition prints in the mokuhanga tradition.  I can't imagine the splendor of seeing Mt. Fuji as Hokusai did in the 19th century.

The MI-Lab Artist Residency program teaches the traditional water based Japanese woodblock printing technique, mokuhanga.  Traditional Ukiyo-e prints were made in this manner.  I have learned the basics of this process at the University of Mississippi.  MI-Lab will provide the expertise and studio space for the advanced training of mokuhanga.  I plan to create a limited edition series of prints during the residency program. The first editions will be exhibited in Tokyo at the conclusion of the residency. The remaining editioned prints and woodblocks will travel back to Mississippi.  The resulting artwork from the MI-Lab program will be exhibited and accompanied by a gallery presentation (talk) at Gallery 130 at the University of Mississippi in late fall or early winter.  The mokuhanga prints created in Japan will be the foundation for my M.F.A. Thesis exhibition in the spring of 2013.  As part of my commitment to the MI-Lab program, I will exhibit, teach, demonstrate and lecture about the art of Japanese Mokuhanga Printmaking.

Thank you to Kickstarter for the opportunity to promote my project and thank you for taking a look!  Remember, I can receive more than requested but if I don't meet my goal then I don't receive anything.