Love and Hope for Japan from South Africa
Kalle Pihlajasaari, South Africa
Information on the print:
A collaboration by Masako Osada, Kalle Pihlajasaari and Mark Sandham. Original painted By Masako, lino blocks cut by Kalle and printing by Mark.
Image 7.5 x 9.5 inches Printed with oil based letterpress inks, using 5 lino blocks.
Paper 10 x 15 inches, Fabriano Accademia Bianco 200 gsm
Edition of 60 prints, 31 for the Portfolio exhibition and sales and extras to be sold in aid of the relief efforts at the exhibition in Johannesburg, South Africa and later on the project web site.
The painting was acrylic on stretched canvass.
It was scanned, vectorised and colour separated. The vectors layers were cleaned up to remove scanning artefacts. Each colour outline was lightly laser cut into mounted lino blocks and then cleared by hand, laser work donated by the Fleetwood family.
The blocks were printed on a Vandercook Universal III flatbed cylinder proof press. The light red was over printed on the red sun.
Comments from the artist:
The central figures are koi fish and a rising sun with the character 愛 ("ai" = "love") in the middle. Koi is one of the most popular Japanese animals in the world. There is also a legend that an aspiring koi transforms itself into a dragon when it succeeds in swimming up waterfalls. Thus, it is my hope for Japan 's quick and successful recovery. The surrounding patter is an Ndebele (a tribe in the central to north-eastern regions of South Africa ) motif, signifying South Africa .