The woodcut La Ceña represents in two dimensions the monochromatic patterns and shapes that comprise the three-dimensional Wallabout. The cluster of organic shapes in the top left corner spills out of the frame, much like the trapezoidal box at Wallabout’s upper left corner, and the mosaic painted onto the frame at its center is similar to the pattern at the left of the print. Both pieces incorporate clusters of patterned shapes and spirals. Pfaff described the images in the Six of One series as “transitional:” they began as literal interpretations of fruits and vegetables, but evolved into abstract organic shapes (Brown, p. 46). Like Yoyogi II, La Ceña combines Japanese influence with a blurred distinction between natural and artificial – a cutout of cherry blossoms blowing in the wind is pasted at the bottom of the print, positioned below what looks like a propeller or turbine. In both style and method, it is a combination of natural and mechanical forms and processes.
Two years after the Japanese Print Project, Pfaff was invited to Crown Point Press’s San Francisco headquarters to undertake a second collaboration. The result was a set of six woodcuts, the first ever made at that studio, aptly titled Six of One. While the woodblocks used for Yoyogi II were carved by an expert, for this project, Pfaff carved the blocks herself in one of Crown Point’s etching studios, which she transformed into a woodworking shop., The prints in this series were created using as many as sixty small blocks that “fit together like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle” (Brown, p. 44) to create a collage effect. The process of creating these works required a sculptor’s approach: She carved hundreds of individual blocks, proofed them in several colors, and then cut and rearranged the proofs on the shop’s walls and floors to perfect her final designs. They were then printed in multiple sections and pieced together, with additional shapes pasted onto the surface.
