Lum's Spirits

         Today’s wood block prints are by Bertha Lum (USA, 1869-1954).  Lum was one of many western artists who fell in love with eastern art at the end of the nineteenth century, but unlike many others, she followed her interest seriously.  She was first exposed to Japanese printmaking through Arthur Wesley Dow, who was responsible for teaching Japanese printmaking styles and techniques to many American artists, (including Frances Hammel Gearhart and Margaret Jordan Patterson).  Lum, however, went to the source.  In a seven-week(!) honeymoon to Japan she found a tutor and bought carving tools, and then a few years later she went back to Japan to work with a block cutter for two months and a printer for another month.  A few years after that she was back in Japan for another six months… and so on.  Later she also went to China to study woodcut methods there, and eventually split her time between California, China, and Japan for the rest of her life.

        Lum was interested not only in the art of Japan, but also in its mythology and legends, and she made a number of wood block prints illustrating spirits of various sorts.  To my eye, these pieces look to have a strong influence from both the Japanese woodcut tradition and also western illustration of the era.  Certainly they’re pleasing to western tastes.

        Today I’ve got three beings (god, spirit, and sprite) representing three elemental forces.  First up is the Spirit of the Sea.  This one has an interesting contrast between the serenity of the spirit contemplating the perfect pearl of a bubble on the gentle rings of smooth water, while behind rises a towering, breaking wave, which paradoxically looks equally serene even though presumably it’s about to come crashing down.  Of course, the Spirit of the Sea doesn’t need to worry about it in any case!

        From water we turn to the God of Fire.  I particularly like the dark, amorphous figures dancing around the blazing god.  They seem to be connected with the black rocks as if this is a volcanic scene, and the swoop of the flaming figure implies a forward movement as if he’s not just dancing in place but striding across the earth.  The subtle variations of colors add to the drama.

        The Wind Sprite also seems to be a spirit of the sea, revelling in the waves whipped into curling crests, and the gulls swooping through the air.  Despite the streaming clothes, the spirit itself is a still figure, standing quite peacefully in the midst of the gusts.  Lum’s choices about how to portray these spirits makes me start thinking about what choices I might make if I were to try my hand at illustrating them.  Would I show spirits so comfortable with their elements that they don’t seem to be working at all, as Lum does, or would I show them actively conducting and crafting the power and movement of their elements?

       If we wanted to round out the four classical elements, we’d need a spirit of earth, as well, but Lum doesn’t seem to have done one - or at least not that I saw.  Some of her other pieces depict characters that are specific to Japanese myths and legends, but these three don’t include names or referents.  Therefore I don’t know whether Lum was illustrating specific tales, or simply imagining spirits in a Japonisme style.  In any case, I like them and will probably be sharing a few more of Lum’s pieces in future posts as the occasion arises.

[Pictures: Spirit of the Sea, color woodcut by Bertha Lum, 1913;

God of Fire, color woodcut by Lum, 1929;

Wind Sprite, color woodcut by Lum, 1917, (Images from BerthaLum.org).]