April Vollmer is a New York artist and author who makes prints, books, and photographs, and specializes in Japanese woodcut, mokuhanga. With an M.F.A. from Hunter College, she first visited Japan with the Nagasawa Art Park Program in 2004. Vollmer carves freely and prints blocks in different orientations and combinations, generating images through the processes of printmaking. She promotes cultural exchange through mokuhanga and is on the advisory boards of the triennial International Mokuhanga Conference, Japan; Kentler International Drawing Space, New York; and the Mokuhanga Project Space, Washington. In addition to exhibiting prints, Vollmer has published in journals including Science, Printmaking Today, and Contemporary Impressions. Her book, Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop, was released by Watson-Guptill in 2015.
About
My prints are autobiographical stories woven from the patterns and contradictions from nature and science. The methodical steps of printmaking, its technical and scientific character, its repetitions, offer me a way to generate layered, thoughtful images. I often reprint blocks in different orientations to create larger, more complex compositions. With its refined cutting and printing tools and resilient handmade paper, mokuhanga has given me a way to make images that are tactile and immediate. The attention to physical touch gives substance to otherwise fleeting visions. The reality of extinction and climate change underlies all these images, they are a way to share insights and remain positive in the face of inevitable loss.