Five Beautiful Things

Unnatural Perspectives

Artist Ray Morimura is a Japanese printmaker who primarily works with woodcut. By painstakingly carving imagery from a wood block, inking it and putting it through a press, Morimura depicts the unique landscapes of Japan using a flat perspective that gives the scenes a surrealistic and geometric cast. Born in Tokyo in 1948, he later studied fine art at Tokyo Gakugei University. He has exhibited around the world and has permanent collections at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, Yale University and the University of Maryland. I love the ‘simple complexity’ of his compositions, which are full of detail but refined by his use of line and bold inks.