Tacoma Art Museum

Foam (wood) block

Print

Foam block, notice my initials are backwards

Print

Yesterday, five of our sketchers group went on a field trip to Tacoma.  We left very early and to our surprise caught the 8am ferry. Goal: Tacoma Art Museum for the Japanese Wood Block Print show.  We arrived too early so we walked over to what we thought was Union Station but found that it has been converted into the Federal Courthouse.  At first we were surprised  that we had to show id's and have our bags scanned to enter a train station.  I couldn't resist going in past the scanner to see the view outside of the Chihuly glass art on a walkway over the ferry and leading toward the Hot shop where the glass is blown/fired? This is a sketch from inside the entrance to the Courthouse.

When we got to the museum, we enjoyed the fantastic old woodblock prints from the series "One Hundred Views of Edo" 1857-58 by Utagawa Hiroshige.
Local art students were visiting and a docent was explaining Japanese art, the period of time and style of design.  Ex. Some of the figurative images looked awkward and flat.  The colors rely on variations in decoration - lots of layers of kimono with different colors and designs on each layer. The extraordinary fine detail in some of the prints was amazing, particularly when you viewed the examples of the steps taken (about 12) in creating each image and color layer.
Adjoining, the main exhibit, was a Chihuly glass room.  I sketched one section of this exhibit and then we moved on to the "hands on" art room where we made our own "wood block prints".  The docents set us up at a table with very thin foam board.  We drew our image onto the foam board and then using a brayer, plexiglass sheet and printing ink, covered our image and then applied it to paper, or in my case to my sketchbook.  We had a lovely time visiting with these two creative women and look forward to a return visit.
This show ends on February 13.  Make a trip to enjoy this surprising section of Tacoma, it will be fun!

Chihuly exhibit