Fisherman 1904

Kanae Yamamoto made this print called Fisherman with, I’m guessing, wood, cutting into it to create a super graphic image of a figure and its surroundings. I can imagine Yamamoto working on this, the way the knife pushes into the wood, finding resistance and then giving way. It is additive in a way, removing material to make something come forward. It seems like the artist used a range of marks to create the image and describe the fisherman’s form and clothing. A kind of code. Short choppy jabs describe the coat. Longer strokes map out the horizon. This feels like a painting made with a knife. And then, there's the actual fisherman. The guy is a monument, looming over the landscape, and there is something about the way he holds his pipe that suggests an inner thoughtfulness. I think about his life, the labor, the sea...and the way Yamamoto captured this figure suggests that artists see other folks, and then distill the essence. This sharing of vision is what art is for.