CULLOM GALLERY | JAPANESE PRINTS - UKIYO-E, SOSAKU HANGA, MOKU HANGA | SEATTLE | BETH CULLOM 

Moku Hanga: Annie Bissett

Lost in Translation (Wampum).

by Annie Bissett (b. 1955)
Self-carved and self-printed moku hanga (Japanese woodblock print)
Signed, dated, titled, and numbered in pencil
Date: 2010
Edition: 22
Printed with 4 carved blocks and 4 hand-rubbed color layers
Image size: 7 x 10 inches (17.8 x 25.4 cm)
X101220
$250.

"The word wampum comes from the language of the Narragansett, a tribe that still lives on a small portion of their ancestral land in Rhode Island. White wampum beads were made from whelk shell and deep purple from quahog shell. The beads were woven into belts, often with pictographs included, and used in ceremonies or to mark important occasions or agreements. The settler colonists appropriated wampum as a kind of money and began manufacturing their own. Colonists often used wampum as partial payment when purchasing land." Annie Bissett