Phil Bivins

Artist's comments ... Some time ago I purchased the book, "The Woodblock and the Artist", about the life and work of Shiko Munakata. For some reason I thought it might be a "How to do" type of book. Instead there are many pictures of work that was produced by this wonderful man. I really love the way he uses color from the back side of the print. I thought maybe I could do that technique using the paper that I printed on. The paper is too thick and sized, so it did not work like I wanted. I also thought about using different color blocks. But after I made the key block and saw the contrast of the black ink and paper along with the touch of red from the chop, it seemed to be enough. I had a great deal of fun carving and printing, but the idea came from the Master...Munakata. I can only hope he would be pleased, maybe that has been confirmed by the nice words that I have received regarding this print. I will treasure this collections of prints along with the others to come for a life time. What a gift to pass on to future generations.