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Edutainment > Articles on Art > Australian Artists >   <  36 Views of Green Island (6) - Pigface  >  

Tom Kristensen

Pig Face
copyright Tom Kristensen, 2004

Tom Kristensen, born 1962, is a young artist from Australia who works in the tradition of Japanese woodblock printmaking. On this page, he writes about his latest print from the series "36 Views of Green Island ".

Here is the original text written by Tom Kristensen. Text and images are copyright protected and may not be used or distributed for other than private use without the prior consignment of the author/artist.

36 Views of Green Island

"These 36 views are presented in the Sosaku Hanga tradition: self-carved and hand printed, using Japanese tools, Japanese mulberry washi and traditional pigment colours. Each print is made from 4 to 6 blocks and printed in an edition of 25 copies."

Pig Face - No. 6

"Behind the sandy beach is the fore dune, a drift of sand that is put in place by the action of waves and wind. The plants that colonise the dune are important in holding the dune in place.

This print illustrates the botany of the fore dune. There are two plants that are able to survive the salt and live in the hot dry sand. The Sand Spinifex grass, Spinifex sericeus is the most common pioneering plant. It has stems and leaves that form a tangled mat that will trap the sand driven by the wind. If covered with a small amount of sand the plant is able to survive and grow upwards to form a new carpet of grass.

In more stable parts of the dune the native Australian Pigface, Carpobrotus glaucescens is able to take hold. This plant is a succulent, which also binds the sand together. It forms roots and runners where the nodes of the stems come in contact with the sand. After the spectacular flower is fertilised, the pigface produces a large, red, juicy fruit. It tastes something like a salty strawberry.

The maturing fruit capsule can be seen in the bottom right hand of the print. The flowers and fruit are produced mainly in the spring and summer, but there is fruit all year round in some of the warm, sheltered hollows that lie behind the fore dune."

Tom Kristensen
April 2005

More about Tom Kristensen

The artist was first discovered by Eric van den Ing, co-author of a classic ukiyo-e book "Beauty and Violence" and owner of Saru Gallery. After Eric van den Ing had placed Tom's woodblock prints on his online gallery, a few days later a collector had bought the whole set. Mr. van den Ing seems to have a "magic hand" for new artists. He was the first to introduce Paul Binnie in 2000 to a larger online community of friends of Japanese prints.

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