In Praise of Trees

In Praise of Trees.

By Naoko Matsubara;

A friend found this book of wood block prints in a Thrift Store, its no longer being published but there are some second hand copies online. Matsubara is a Japanese artist whose medium is  a  ”block of wood…gouged by her chisel, cut by her knife” . Her prints atttempt to capture something of the spirt of the tree, the rougth hewn designs mirroring the environment of the natural world. I found some of the prints a bit hit and miss but they  avoid any romanticism, which often weakens western artists  portrayal of nature. The prints also have selected poems from a variety of poets from Tennyson to contempoary Japenese poets. As a woodworker its always helpful to have books such as this that give inspiration to ideas of design and ways to honour the natural world around us.

The Tree;  by Philip Larkin….. “Their yearly trick of looking new-Is written down in rings of grain”.