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Curator's Corner

Happy and Healthy New Year!

Monday, December 22, 2025 | Karl Cole

I cannot image a better way than saying “goodbye” to 2025 than with the uplifting, positive sentiments reserved for the pine tree in Japanese and Chinese cultures. There are very few e ...

Curator's Corner

The Week of Shichi-go-san: Kitagawa Utamaro

Monday, November 10, 2025 | Karl Cole

“Rites of passage” refer to cultures all over the world in which certain birthdays are celebrated as stepping stones to a new period of life. A Japanese example is Shichi-go-san. The n ...

Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Sekino Junichirō

Thursday, October 23, 2025 | Karl Cole

Sekino Junichirō was a woodblock printmaker in the sōsaku hanga movement, in which the artists draws the subject, cuts the woodblock, and prints the image themselves. These artists often incorpora ...

Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Albert Oehlen

Wednesday, September 17, 2025 | Karl Cole

Albert Oehlen was part of a German artistic movement Junge Wilde (Young Wild ones) in the 1980s, the rebelled against the conformity of “modernism” in such movements as Minimalism, Con ...

Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Antonio Frasconi

Monday, April 28, 2025 | Karl Cole

Antonio Frasconi is an internationally known woodcut artist. He has published hundreds of prints and illustrated many books. Although much of his work has registered political protest, his subjects ra ...

Curator's Corner

National Pet Day: Isoda Koryūsai

Friday, April 11, 2025 | Karl Cole

National Pet Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated on April 11. It was founded 2005/2006 by animal advocate and pet and family lifestyle expert Colleen Paige. The day is dedicated to all types of pe ...

Curator's Corner

Happy New Year 2023: Totoya Hokkei

Tuesday, January 3, 2023 | Karl Cole

Mekari Shinji at the Mekari Shrine in Japan is an annual ritual of cutting wakame seaweed—symbolizing wealth and good fortune—from the ocean at low tide on New Year’s day of the old ...

Curator's Corner

Fuji (Wisteria) Matsuri: Utagawa Hiroshige

Monday, April 27, 2020 | Karl Cole

In Japan, April 21 to May 6 is the time of the Fuji Matsuri, or “Wisteria Festival.” During the festival, traditional music and dance are performed at the Kameido Tenjin shrine on the outs ...

Curator's Corner

"Hmm, Ginko Leaf or Toothbrush?"

Monday, August 27, 2018 | Karl Cole

I just got a crown on a tooth this week, so I thought I’d do a teeth-themed posting. Goodness knows I don’t love going to the dentist, but he’s a really good one, so I’m no lon ...

Curator's Corner

Sumidagawa in July: Japanese Woodcuts

Monday, July 24, 2017 | Karl Cole

The actual festival of Sumidagawa (“Sumida River”) occurs in Tokyo in the last week of August, but there are fireworks in Tokyo from May through August, starting with the Opening of the Su ...

Curator's Corner

National Monkey Day: Shimizu Seifu

Wednesday, December 16, 2015 | Karl Cole

I always admit I’m never too old to learn. This week I learned about National/International Monkey Day, which fell on the 14th of December. The commemorative day has only been around since 2000, ...

Curator's Corner

Survey No. 10: Ubiquitous Real

Monday, January 19, 2015 | Karl Cole

So far we have taken a look at Classicism and Romanticism around the world in the 1800s. Now let’s look at “realism,” which—like every other style—has been a trend somewh ...

Curator's Corner

Saturated Autumn Color: Meiji Period

Tuesday, November 4, 2014 | Karl Cole

I know I showed a Japanese artist’s work last week, but I got so excited when I came across this woodcut print that I just had to share it with you. It’s a perfect example of saturation&nb ...

Curator's Corner

Wood Engraving Artist: Grace Arnold Albee

Monday, April 28, 2014 | Karl Cole

There is a high degree of skill in printmaking, particularly—in the case of relief printing—the carving of the vehicle. I, for one, have tried relief printing, both linoleum cuts and woodc ...

Curator's Corner

Aizuri-e = Wonderful: Kunisada

Monday, October 24, 2011 | Karl Cole

Aizuri-e means blue printed picture. Traditionally, the blue was derived from the dayflower. However, via the Dutch in Osaka, Prussian blue was imported from Europe as early as the 1790s. It did ...

Curator's Corner

Pioneer Art Educator: Arthur Wesley Dow

Wednesday, January 5, 2011 | Karl Cole

The late 1800s and early 1900s was an amazingly fertile period in American art. Between the 1870s and 1890s, thousands of American artists went to Europe to study art. This included the likes of ...

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Happy and Healthy New Year!

The Week of Shichi-go-san: Kitagawa Utamaro

Artist Birthday: Sekino Junichirō

Artist Birthday: Albert Oehlen

Artist Birthday: Antonio Frasconi

National Pet Day: Isoda Koryūsai

Happy New Year 2023: Totoya Hokkei

Fuji (Wisteria) Matsuri: Utagawa Hiroshige

"Hmm, Ginko Leaf or Toothbrush?"

Sumidagawa in July: Japanese Woodcuts

National Monkey Day: Shimizu Seifu

Survey No. 10: Ubiquitous Real

Saturated Autumn Color: Meiji Period

Wood Engraving Artist: Grace Arnold Albee

Aizuri-e = Wonderful: Kunisada

Pioneer Art Educator: Arthur Wesley Dow

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