Nostalgia in Blue 1968

Hiroyuki Tajima made this gorgeous print called 'Nostalgia in Blue' using a woodblock. There’s a real tension in this work. It’s all about layering and colors rubbing up against each other. Look at that square! The way it hovers on the background. It makes me wonder what Tajima was thinking when he made it? Maybe he was trying to capture a memory or a feeling that's hard to pin down. The dark ink feels like it’s about to swallow that blue. Then there’s a lighter blue square in the middle, with all these tiny dots, like stars. I wonder, is that a window? Is it a painting inside a painting? There’s something really playful about the composition, and I can imagine Tajima experimenting, working with the materials until it felt just right. Painters, we're all just copying, stealing, and riffing off each other. We’re in an ongoing conversation, a call and response across time.