Japanesque woodblock printing demonstration by Tom Killion and film screening of "Yojimbo"

Artist Demonstration by Tom Killion
Gallery F (lower level)
noon–4:00 p.m.
Bay Area artist Tom Killion will demonstrate Japanese woodblock carving techniques. 

Tom Killion carves the blocks for his Japanese-style woodcut prints using Japanese handtools which he sharpens on Japanese water stones. For the last decade or more he has been primarily using shina plywood blocks, made in Japan specifically for moku hanga (woodcut) printmaking from Japanese linden wood; but Killion has experimented with cherry, pear, fir and various end-grain blocks including boxwood (intended for European-style wood engraving). Killion uses an array of 20 tools, handling them in a "Western" manner, and spends up to 40 working hours to create a large and elaborate key block. Killion will demonstrate his woodblock carving techniques in the artist studio today only.

Tom was born and raised in Mill Valley, California, on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais. The rugged scenery of Marin County and Northern California inspired him from an early age to create landscape prints using linoleum and wood, strongly influenced by the traditional Japanese ukiyo-e style of Hokusai and Hiroshige. He studied history at U.C. Santa Cruz, where he was introduced to fine book printing by William Everson and Jack Stauffacher, and has since printed multiple books, including two award-winning books in collaboration with Pulitzer prize-winning poet Gary Snyder, The High Sierra of California and Tamalpais Walking. In October 2009 Killion and his studio in Point Reyes, California, were featured on the PBS program Craft in America: Process. Tom sells his work in galleries and on his website, TomKillion.com.

Film screening of Yojimbo
Florence Gould Theater
2:00–3:36 p.m.
The incomparable Toshiro Mifune stars in Akira Kurosawa’s visually stunning and darkly comic Yojimbo. To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily masterless samurai Sanjuro turns a range war between two evil clans to his own advantage. This exhilarating genre-twister remains one of the most influential and entertaining films of all time and was the basis for the spaghetti western A Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood.

Illustration: City From Yellow Bluff, Tom Killion