Journey to Hokusai

Overview

A feature-length documentary that intimately follows an artist's creative process and discovery of the origins of his art. Tom Killion, a woodblock print artist, identifies the 19th century Japanese artist Hokusai as his inspirational master. When Tom makes his California landscape prints, his most important artistic references are Hokusai's landscape prints. Tom sketches a real landscape just like Hokusai did 200 years ago. He carves woodblocks using Japanese hand tools. But when it comes to printing, Tom uses a German printing press and oil-based ink unlike the traditional method of printing by hand with watercolor ink.