Lilian Miller, Lantern on a Hill, Nikko – Spring

Notes: Miller's strongest prints combine a variety of striking formal effects even as they evoke the serene beauty of the Orient, untouched by the modern world. This work depicts the site of her childhood summers and for all its nostalgic beauty. Instead of making a design then turning it over to a carver and printer working under her supervisions, Miller mastered the requisite carving and printing techniques herself. It is impossible to say whether this new intimacy with process led to her growing interest in formal effects, or if it is this interest which brought about her involvement in production. Nonetheless Miller's personal exploration of the carving and printing process is directly felt in the final products. The fact that Miller actually cut and made the prints herself enabled her to obtain unusual effects: a wider and more vivid range of colors, use of shadows, an added depth and mellowness of shading achieved by repeated printings, and variations of the same picture by using different colors to indicate differing seasons or moods. All of these things would have been more difficult for any artist to obtain who had to be content with the old methods of Japanese printers and their reluctance to change.