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Tom Kristensen

Mos-keety, 2006
copyright Tom Kristensen

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: "Mos-keety".

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.

Mos-keety

The Japanese woodblock print is not unlike the comic strip, produced in large numbers for popular entertainment. Like woodblocks the comic strip is a product of a technological process as well as an artistic endeavour.

George Bungle is often in violent dispute with his neighbours. He is cantankerous and given to crackpot schemes. His bickering and his fragile sanity make him one of the most illuminating characters in the American newspaper comic strip tradition. Harry Tuthill began drawing George and Jo Bungle in 1918 and took them through the Jazz Age and the Depression. The Bungle Family was published daily and syndicated across the country. The strip finally folded in 1945.

This print is made from an original zinc printer's plate. This plate was produced from the original artwork by photography and acid etching. For the production of a newspaper page this plate would be combined with other movable type including banners, illustrations and blocks of text. Four pages were prepared together to make a mould for a papier-mache cast. The damp cast was then bent to fit a roller and dried before yet another metal cast could be made. The finished curved metal sheet could be used to print the thousands of copies needed overnight for the following morning edition.

I have combined the printer's plate with a woodblock for the banner and rubber type for the lettering. The coloured elements are printed from broken glass and the mosquito wing is printed from a sheet of broken windscreen glass. I have used Japanese water based inks in preference to oily newsprint ink.

Tom Kristensen
December 2006

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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