Geese at full moon 1925 - 1936

Here is a print, "Geese at Full Moon" made by Ohara Koson, sometime between the late 19th and early 20th century. Imagine Koson, carefully carving the woodblocks, thinking about the weight and feel of the knife in his hand. He would have been pondering the curve of a goose’s neck, the angle of its wings against the round moon. The geese look weighty, yes? So different to say, a sparrow. They fill the sky with their presence. I love the combination of grays and blacks with that luminous yellow, the way the artist simplified everything down to its essence, making a picture that feels both serene and powerful. Artists are always in conversation, aren't they, riffing off each other's ideas across time. And it's funny, this woodblock, with its flat colors and defined shapes, is not a painting, yet still it speaks to me about the embodied experience of seeing and feeling, of uncertainty and intuition, offering endless ways to interpret the world.