Yoshida 1906

This is ‘Yoshida,’ a woodblock print made by Utagawa Hiroshige sometime in the 19th century. The layered approach here, the way the scene unfolds from foreground to distant mountains, reminds me of my own process, where images evolve through successive states. Hiroshige's touch is so delicate; look at the textures he coaxes from the wood, the subtle gradations of color in the water. It's a flat surface, yet he creates such depth, using soft blues and grays to suggest atmospheric perspective. Notice the building on the right, shrouded in scaffolding – it speaks to the theme of constant change, of things being perpetually made and remade. Hiroshige's contemporary, Hokusai, also springs to mind - they both shared a gift for capturing the fleeting beauty of the everyday. Art like this reminds us that nothing is ever truly finished, that everything is in a state of becoming, open to infinite possibilities.