• Title of the work    Conversations II

• Material(s) used    Woodblock print collage – watercolour ink, washi paper, rice glue

• Dimensions        Image size: 5.5” x 8.25”  

            Paper size: 10.5” x 13.5”

•  Instagram handle    @mariko.jesse

Mariko is an award-winning illustrator and printmaker. She was born in Japan, educated in the UK, and is currently based in California. Mariko’s clients include Tiffany & Co., VOGUE and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel group, and she created the interior artwork for an entire subway station in Hong Kong. As a printmaker, Mariko’s work celebrates the patterns of different cultures, exploring sense of place, and her art can be found in private and public collections around the world. 

As soon as I heard about the Cabinet Oak project, and saw the oak tree, I wanted to create an artwork focusing on the chairs that LBJ and his friends/colleagues used to sit in, underneath the tree. 

I researched all the existing images of the time when LBJ resided in the house, trying to collect pictures of all the different chairs that existed and were used at that time. I even found some grainy black and white film footage of an interview where LBJ and Lady Bird showed a reporter around the ranch, and I managed to get details of chairs around the property. I sketched all the different chairs I could find.

I created my artworks as collages: I made prints from the sides of the wood log I was given (the bark removed), where the woodgrain wasn't rings, but swirling grain, using watercolour inks in natural woody colours. I then made chair cut-outs using these printed papers. I placed the cut-out shapes of chairs onto sheets of washi paper, and experimented with positioning. 

I partially glued the chairs down in a variety of compositions: as time goes by, hopefully certain parts of the chairs will lift slightly. I would like some light to be able shine around and through the chairs, creating shadows to create an effect like sunlight through the leaves of a tree. I want the chairs to retain just a hint of 3-dimensionality. 

The largest of my artworks is titled Conversations I, and while not an exact replica, references the famous photograph of LBJ and his colleagues underneath the Cabinet Oak. I also made several other smaller versions with fewer chairs in each (Conversations II – V, Alone time, Thinking) using this same technique. 

I would like the chairs in my artwork to evoke memories of a time when the tree overheard all sorts of conversations that happened underneath it. There’s a physical element to the layers of the collage, a printed element in the texture and pattern of the wood on the paper shapes, and hopefully a slightly wistful feeling of times gone by.

www.marikojesse.com