One of my pleasures at Codex last week was the table next to mine—Mission Gallery—print sellers in San Juan Bautista, California. One of their artists, Mikio Watanabe, is a Japanese man living in France, who designs and prints quite beautiful mezzotints. The gallery was at Codex because Wantanabe has made a book of his prints that include several haiku. The haiku were written in English (by Sheila Sondik), then translated into Japanese by Watanabe’s wife. The English and Japanese haikus are printed letterpress along with the mezzotints. Watanabe and his wife attended the book fair where he sat at the table and worked on a mezzotint plate for a demonstration later in the week. It was fascinating to watch. Here’s a page out of the book, you can see more here.
