http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27jBIlBDtfg

from the Beach Museum of Art web site:

Figuring it Out: Prints and Drawings by Mike Lyon

April 14, 2009 – July 18, 2009

Donna Lindsey Vanier Gallery

Kansas City-based artist Mike Lyon is the 2009 Friends of the Beach Museum of Art gift print artist. This exhibition features a selection of the artist’s recent prints and drawings, as well as examples from his extensive collection of Japanese prints. Lyon earned a BA in architecture and fine art (University of Pennsylvania, 1973) and a BFA in painting (Kansas City Art Institute, 1975). In 1976 he put his career as an artist on hold and joined the family business, a cattle hide processing operation in Kansas City his great-great grandfather started. Lyon invented a computerized system to automate the cattle hide grading process. In 1978 he founded Grading Systems, a computer hardware and software design company. Longing to make art full-time, Lyon sold his business interests and returned to his studio in 1991.

Lyon’s interest in computers and machines informs much of his recent work as a visual artist. His large-scale prints and drawings (as large as 84 × 45 inches) are based on his digital photographs of the human figure and inventively merge traditional art making methods and computer technology. Lyon’s work also demonstrates his keen interest in Japanese aesthetics. For example, his bust-length portrait heads recall the tradition of okubi-e (big-head picture) images. Lyon has an abiding passion for Japanese art and culture and is an avid collector of Japanese ukiyo-e prints.

Lyon’s prints and drawings are created with the aid of a ShopBot CNC (computer numerically controlled) router, a programmable machine designed for woodworking applications. He has modified the ShopBot to create a giant drawing and block cutting machine. With data from the digital photographs, he calculates millions of lines of movement code with which to program the ShopBot. This code instructs the machine how far to move an ink pen or a router bit along the X (length), Y (width), and Z (height) axes for each mark or cut. The final images can require as many as 12 million lines of code and nearly two weeks of non-stop drawing or cutting.

“Figuring it Out” is sponsored by the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art Business Partners.

Cover of catalog from the Beach Museum 2009 exhibition

distorted panorama of exhibition

sign at front door advertising the gallery-talk

Linda with "Annette" and "Linda"

Crosby and Anthony drawings - senior curator Bill North at right

The opening Friday, September 1 of “Mike Lyon: Large Scale Drawings and Woodblock Prints” was a pretty humongous party! I suppose more than 600 people passed through the gallery that evening between 7 when the doors were unlocked and about 9:40 when Sherry Leedy shooed the last of us out the door. I saw MANY old friends which was just wonderful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbhP6GzapK0

my VERY old friend (when I lived in New York, I occasionally walked him to pre-school), the now best selling author Seth Mnookin and his friend (they later married) Sara visited the next day while they were in town for a wedding and it was great to touch base again (photo: Jennifer Bowerman)

My 1974-1975 painting instructor, retired chair of the Kansas City Art Institute’s painting department, Wilbur Niewald, was there — he just returned from a Guggenheim Fellowship spent painting in the Southwest US. He had the most wonderful time and we’ve got a dinner planned to find out all about it. Wilbur’s close friend, another retired painting professor at the Art Institute, Michael Walling was there and bought my “Fixing Hair” print. That was very nice.

Another KCAI retired faculty member, Victor Babu (of ceramics fame) visited and really seemed to love EVERYthing! He’s an enthusuiastic guy and characterized my big “Sara” reclining nude woodcut this way: “Omenish, very very omenish — the deep-deep-darks and the figure turned away — as if she’s sad or angry and maybe she’s talking about it — but what’s she saying? She’s rolled away up there but there’s that comfortable knitted thing up front — it’s soft, but she’s turned away from the comfort thing and us and all those deep blues — oh-menish… very VERY oh-menish!” — I asked him to please write my artist’s statement! (ha, ha)!

The director of the Kemper Museum, Rachel Blackburn, was there and bought the big “Sarah” drawing for their permanent collection. That felt great, I can tell you! Doug Freed, Director of the Daum Museum was there earlier with Dr. Daum and bought bought the big “Jon” drawing for their permanent collection! Wow and double-WOW! Very validating to me that these two excellent regional contemporary art museums stepped up and collected my most recent work on opening day!

The place was a veritable BUZZ of activity all night long — people pressing their noses right up against the prints and drawings, pointing and talking and it all seemed very energetic and positive! Now I’ve settled down a bit and am waiting for post-partum depression to overwhelm me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=033cjRyyeDs

video documents start-to-finish printing of one sheet around block four…

"Sara", 42 x 77 inch woodblock print (17 blocks) Permanent Collection, Beach Museum of Art

Sara woodcuts in press take-up drawer -- 14 of 17 blocks have been printed

Sara woodcuts in drawer after 14 of 17 blocks printed

"Sara" exhibited at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art September-October, 2006

Good lord, it’s hot in my studio! I’m working on “Sara”, a 17 block woodcut on ten sheets of 42 x 77 inch Iwano Ichibei hosho paper. Sweaty work and EXHAUSTING!!! I’m managing to print about 3 or 4 blocks per day and that’s really all I am able to manage! But I’m getting better and better at using the large press I built about seven or eight months ago, even though this is only the third edition I’ve pulled on it.

I handled registration a bit differently this time… The blocks were carved with three identical side kento, each about 1 1/2 inches long, and the center of the middle one was inscribed with a very narrow line. I used a razor blade to produce three flat edges in the deckle of each sheet (parallel to the edge of the sheet)so that they’d line up with the kento in the blocks, and I drew a short pencil line in the center of the middle ‘notch’ to be lined up with the line inscribed in the middle kento. Surprisingly, this worked very well, and I found it easy to register each sheet to the blocks, aligning the pencil mark with the inscribed line on the block. At the far edges, this resulted in about +/- .05 inch of dead on which is plenty close for the image and the eye. Given the size of the sheets I’m not sure I can do much better than that…

– Mike

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!! What a great week we had, and I congratulate you all for having designed, carved, and successfully printed Japanese technique woodblock prints! WOW! YOU DID IT! Janis — I’m SO sorry you fell ill the 2nd day — hope you’re all well now and that you’ll be able to finish up the next time I visit Connecticut? Special thanks to our host, the Center for Contemporary Printmaking, CCP director and master printer, Tony Kirk, and staff Chris, Heather, Jackie, and everyone else who made it so easy for us all to be together!

I hope you don’t mind that I’ve edited two little movies from our time together — one with very brief cuts from the introductions you each made (sorry that I’ve surely left out some very important stuff here)… At the end of the introduction movie is what little we captured of baren-cover-tieing — sorry my camera filled up before I finished, but maybe this’ll get you started? I’ll film it start to finish the next time I re-cover my baren so you can remember how to do it yourself! The second movie contains some shots of each of you working on SOMEthing, and I’ve also included a slideshow with a bunch of little photos I nabbed of you your prints. Carol and Su — you guys were gone before I was able to photograph your prints — send me some scans and I’ll add them! Hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnfSZZDKT_Y

(introductions and preparation of takenokawa for baren cover)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocw7fjdst_Y

(workshop participants at work)

When printing very pale colors, I generally add pigment dispersion or dry pigment to rice paste or methyl cellulose, mix well, and then dab that onto the damp block and brush out. For more saturated colors, I mix a substantial amount of dry pigment into a bit of paste and water and let stand overnight, stirring well the following day prior to printing — OR — I use pigment dispersion (a pigment-saturated liquid which mixes freely into water) as I demonstrate in the movie below. I add the pigment directly into a damp area of the block and then brush out until I achieve an even and satiny surface suitable for printing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRmV0ZqkvRo

In the video, I’m printing the fourth of 12 carvings onto six 77 x 42 inch sheets (image 75 x 40 inches)… I’m clearly very much on the steep part of the learning curve and my printing’s more or less out of control at the moment — even so, this looks like it’ll be a pretty nice image of the dense aspen grove next to my parents’ home in Colorado.

And… It turned out very well in spite of my poor choice of an MDF core plywood — the MDF tended to swell during damp printing so that it was quite a trick to avoid squeeze out of pigment at the edges of carved areas. Still, the press and printing are progressing nicely, I think!

reduction carving 4x8 foot walnut plywood for 'Aspen Grove'

detail of print showing woodgrain in printing

prints in take-up drawer early in printing

Detail of block after final carving

detail of print

prints in take-up drawer late in printing

completed prints on wall behind press

'Aspen Grove' 2006, 77x40 inches, woodcut on paper made by Iwano Ichibei

'Leaves', Feb 2006, 77 x 42 inches, woodcut on handmade Japanese paper

detail

'Leaves' prints in takeup drawer after final impressions were pulled.

Here’s a short (3.4mb) movie showing the last impression of the last print (8 blocks were printed on each of 5 sheets) — ends with some dizzying (sorry) close-ups of the print showing rather intense detail:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFaUJBBXwn8

pulling the final impression

OK, here’s about 11 minutes of video showing the first prints coming off the large woodblock printing press I’ve built — the press bed it about 4 1/2 feet wide and 10 feet long and has a novel paper delivery humidor which can present sheets up to 4×8 feet for registering and printing by a single person (actually, I’m a married person, but I print solo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXLWKaSfe64

(carving and printing on new press)

The block on the press is a 4×8 foot sheet of 1/4 inch cherry plywood — easy for me to carry back and forth from the press to the carving machine (only a few feet apart) as this is to be a reduction print, so only one block will be carved, printed, and recarved through the eight printings for theimage.

The papers I’m printing are very thin and very fine Japanese Hosho made by Iwano Ichibei. These are the largest sheets Iwano-san has made in many years — 42 x 77 inches. The are also the largest sheets I’ve EVER handled! But the mechanical aids I’ve designed and built make it so easy!

I feel SOOOooo happy! It works even better than I’d hoped and seems very easy and straight forward… I have a few adjustments to make in moving the paper from the block into the printed paper humi-drawer under the press, but I think that should be a relatively simple improvement.

Considering that these are the VERY FIRST prints I’ve pulled from the press (and that my skill in handling the blocks, sheets, inks, brushes, drawers, etc. can only improve with practice), these first attempts make me feel optimistic! My only regrets at the moment are that I’m no longer young, strong, and/or slender– I’ll have to work on those a bit (LOL)

Mike

– Mike

Late in 2004, I decided to produce large woodblock prints — larger than I was able working alone and using a baren… Of course, I’d considered using assistants, but prefer to work alone and on my own schedule. So I began to think seriously about what sort of ‘press’ I might like to use. I tested the method on some medium scale (32″) blocks for “Anthony” using my 30 x 60 inch bed etching press and the very lightest pressure and it worked much better than I’d expected, so I began by researching existing large intaglio presses (I’d first looked into the possibilty of building a huge hydraulic plate-press, but it appeared too heavy and much too costly). Large intaglio presses are also quite expensive, and the best were specifically designed for very thin plates and didn’t have sufficient room between the bed and the top roller to accommodate both my blocks and the vacuum plenum I require to hold them flat. None of the manufacturers seemed willing to modify their designs to my specifications — that came as something of a surprise to me, but I understand their reluctance better now. There were also some significant paper handling problems to overcome while registering large papers single-handed (to be described in a future posting).

Because of space considerations in my studio, a moving bed press was undesirable (requiring a footprint twice the length of the bed, so I first tried to design a very stiff bedded press with a single roller. Deflection of the bed seemed to me to be an insurmountable problem with this method, so I decided a more conventional two-roller scheme would be easier to engineer. I ultimately decided to design a somewhat unique two-roller ‘wringer’ type press in which the bed would be stationary and the rollers could move back and forth across the bed. Because the rollers work in opposition, the bed could be very thin — just stiff enough to support the block prior to printing. I got some ‘help’ from Doug Forsythe’s $25 plans to ‘build your own etching press’ – these made for a more confident start!

One of the most important decisions was exactly ‘how’ the rollers could be made to accurately move back and forth along the press bed. There are many options for ‘linear motion’ solutions — after much consideration and comparison, I selected some off-the-shelf components from Bishop Wisecarver (BWC.com) who not only provided the excellent (and expensive) aluminum extrusions I chose for the frame components, but also the compatible carriage and rail system which will convey the rollers along the frame rails.

Getting the measurements right, figuring out how long things should be, how to make everything fit together, especially in the drive section where a number of parts had to be coordinated was challenging! For example, consider the two sprockets and chain in the drive — that has always seemed so simple… Until I tried it! There are a HUGE number of choices of chain sizes and sprocket sizes, and after figuring out what weight of chain would work, then there’s the desired mechanical advantage, and finally, you can’t just measure chain to the nearest 16th inch, the links are fixed, so you have to calculate how many links, then the shaft centers can be figured and fit exactly… LOTS of new stuff to learn and calculate — I must have tried 100 different combinations of chains and sprockets before deciding on one set which would work… In the process, I gave up on the configuration which would probably have been best — placing a light weight chain inside each of the long rails which support everything, then meshing a sprocket into that chain on each side to drive the rollers along… That would’a been very cool, but I wasn’t patient enough to redesign EVERYTHING in order to make it all fit… Compromises, compromises…

So eventually I decided on a design I thought would work using as many ‘off the shelf’ components as I could find, and making the rest. Because I thought I could machine aluminum myself using the same CNC machine (from ShopBot Tools) I’ve been using to carve large blocks since March, 2004, I designed many of the parts to be cut out of 1/2″ aluminum — here’s the drawing from which the parts were machined:

Below is a photo of the machining in progress — it was more difficult than I’d imagined, and I broke a few bits out of ignorance, but if I have to do it again, I’ll be able to accomplish it much more easily. Live and learn!

The rollers were another challenge… The bottom roller had to be machined to very close tolerance in order to exactly engage the press bed. I was also concerned about potential deflection in the 1.25″ center shaft and performed some fairly complex calculations in order to satisfy myself that deflection would be minimal under load. Eventually I settled on a design which I had bid at several local machine shops. My design called for four large ‘washers’ to be welded to the shaft and the inside of schedule 80 black pipe, then for the pipe to be turned to precise dimension. But it turns out that schedule-80 pipe is unsuitable for turning, as it contains stresses which won’t allow an accurate turning to be produced, so I had to go with much more expensive seamless DOM (drawn over mandril) tubing.

So I am finally actually assembling the thing! So far everything fits perfectly, and I’m feeling optimistic that it’s all going to really work! The rails and carriages have been assembled to the frame sides, seem to work as I’d imagined, and look good!

Total cost has been about $6,500 (yikes! But still SO MUCH cheaper than even a well-used intaglio press of similar size)

To be continued…

"Anthony", April 29, 2004, 30 x 21 inches, woodblock print from 15 cherry plywood blocks, dry pigment and neri-zumi in paste of rice starch on Iwano Ichibei hosho (permanent collection of McNeese State University)

the 15 blocks for Anthony (1st attempt)

The McNeese National Works On Paper exhibition (click link for article) of 40 prints was selected by juror Annette DiMeo Carlozzi from over 800 entries. My 30 x 21 inch woodblock print “Anthony” received the “Bank One Purchase Award” of $1,200, entered the permanent collection of McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and was reproduced on the cover of the exhibition catalog.

"Aspen", Dec 8, 2003, 10.5 x 7.5 inches, woodblock print - 8 state reduction, Prussian Blue and Sumi on Nishinouchi paper

They’re printed on Nishinouchi paper from McClain’s.  Nishinouchi is a relatively thin washi for printmaking and is not the highest quality. It has a lot of variation in thickness over each sheet and a lot of clumps and impurities and the sizing is applied in a sloppy manner with many missed spots, especially around the edges. But it’s relatively inexpensive and strong enough to hold up to several over-printings if you’re very careful. I did lose two prints to holes where the paper just gave up the ghost in the darker areas.

Pigment is Prussian Blue pigment suspension and sumi, both from Daniel Smith mixed into a little home-brewed rice paste I cooked up from Lineco, Inc Neutral pH Pure Rice Starch (McClain’s now has some nice Japanese rice starch, too). I jury rigged a primitive sort of double boiler from my hot water pot heating some boiling water and into the shallow boiling water went a Pyrex cup containing of a couple teaspoons of rice starch in a half a cup of water. I stirred the paste mixture occasionally while heating until it became hot, clear, and thick. Then I cooled it and added a good amount of formalin (enough to make my eyes water a little) and the paste has kept well at room temperature in a sealed jar for a month. Without the formalin you’d want to make a fresh batch daily.

My primary model for almost a decade, Sarah had fallen asleep while modeling for this print. To me, her relaxed posture and features were so beautiful!

“Bijin” is a Japanese word which means “beautiful woman.” “Aizuri-e” means “blue picture.” Subject, color, and technique are traditional mid-19th Century Japanese, but the realistic image, composition, and the reduction carving of the block are quite Western. This print is a reduction woodcut, carved and printed entirely by hand using traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques and materials (except, of course, for the reduction part).

"Sarah Reclining (bijin aizuri-e)" Aug, 2003, 16 x 22 inches, woodblock print (water based pigments) on washi

after four blocks

the block after eight carvings

after 10 blocks

after fourteen blocks

after seventeen blocks

Traditionally, each of the eighteen blocks for this print would have been carved by hand from separate pieces of wood. In order to save time and materials (but at increased risk), I carved only a single block laminated from three narrower planks of cherry wood. I like that you can still see the grain of the wood and a joinery seam in the finished print. For the various shades of blue which make up the colors in this print, I’d carve a bit, print each sheet, carve a bit more, print each sheet again a bit darker, etc. – eighteen times! Although I printed forty sheets, the damp paper sagged so much during printing that half wound up with ink blotches. Only twenty sheets could be editioned.

This is a four basswood block reduction in Winsor & Newton Transparent Yellow, Alizarine Crimson, Prussian Blue, & Sumi with 28 color layers with a dark mica ground. 56 sheets printed in all in three variations. This one has a dark baren-suhi ground and the rest have either a dark mica ground or a solid bright cranberry background. I got terrific results with a minimum of sweat using my fabulous new Rei Yuki ball-bearing baren!!

"Sarah", 2003, 15.25 x 5.124 inches, Chu-tanzaku Bijin Mitate, Moku-Hanga, color woodcut

three variations: baren-suji, mica ground, plain

I am calling this a “shin-hanga bijin mitate” — shin hanga (new prints) are woodblock prints produced in Japan during the first half of the 20th Century, especially during the 1920′s and 1930′s by the publisher like Watanabe and from original paintings by artists like Ito Shinsui, Tori Kotondo, Natori Shunsen, and Hashiguchi Goyo. Subjects were generally landscapes, beautiful women, and actors. Beautiful women (bijin) were typically depicted as in this print, submissive, sitting quietly, combing the hair, applying makeup, toweling off after the bath, etc. A “mitate” is a common artifice in Japanese prints — it’s a sort of reflection or spoof, not necessarily comical, in which a theme is transformed or parodied by changing the circumstances, the time or the persons. In this image, a modern American woman assumes the posture and dress (or undress) of any number of Japanese prints of 80 years ago.

I Submitted five of each to the competition. The juror, print collector Reba White Smith, did not jury my prints into the show. Anthony (Tony) Kirk, director of the Center for Contemporary Printmaking, wrote me the kindest rejection letter and asked me to telephone him.

Tony is head of the etching department at Ken Tyler’s famous Tyler Graphics. He is a master printer and has collaborated with major American artists and taught printmaking at a number of universities. On the phone, Tony told me that he was very disappointed that my prints weren’t juried into the show, as he had awarded my print, “Dana”, the Director’s Award. And he emailed me the following:

During our exhibitions I always put together an educational display relating to the current exhibition. We have two glass vitrine cabinets for this and they are placed in the corridor leading from the gallery to the main print studios. I am going to place there some miniature prints from my own collection including a woodcut by George Roualt and a wood engraving by Thomas Bewick. I would like to buy your woodcut of the standing female nude and include it in this display. I was wondering if you could send me a description of your technique and the blocks so that I could include them in the display. <…> I already have two other artist members of our center who have expressed an interest in buying it. Even although it is not included in the juried show, I am confident that I can sell several impressions for you.

Let us hope that when the next miniature print competition rolls around in two years that your submissions will be juried in and that you receive the awards that your work merits. Meanwhile I am very pleased to own one of your works. Please send the material for the display case to my attention at <…>

We will soon be planning our summer workshop brochure which will include a week long workshop in hanga printmaking by artist in residence Paul Furneaux, the artist whose studio/workshop was destroyed in the Edinburgh fire. Perhaps you would be interested in doing a similar workshop in the fall/winter or in spring 2004?

Isn’t that just the nicest rejection you’ve ever seen?!? So it turns out that all three prints will be on display, with their blocks, and with a description of my process and one or two photos of me working. Go figure!

Carved Apallachian cherry wood blocks and printed on Baren Mall Yamaguchi Hosho paper (very nice!). Thirty sheets printed for each print. Completed January, 2003 in about two and a half days of carving and printing.

These are reduction prints, printed by hand using Traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques and materials (except, of course for the reduction part). For the various shades of blue which make up each print, I’d carve each block a bit, print each sheet, carve each block a bit more, print each sheet again a little darker, etc, etc, etc.

This is an example of the prints I produced for BarenForum‘s Exchange #14(a). It is a Japanese technique wood block print, oban size (about 15 inches high) on hand made, unsized gampi paper.

Blue Shoes, Aug 2002, 15 x 10 inches, reduction in 23 states of three blocks on Yamaguchi hosho paper, 50 sheets printed

This is a reduction print, printed by hand using Traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques and materials (except, of course for the reduction part). Traditionally, each of the 19 blocks for this print would have been carved by hand from separate pieces of wood. But in order to save time and material and increase risk, I carved only three blocks — one for the pinks, one for the blues, and one for the grays. So each of the 52 sheets of paper was printed at least 19 times (not all papers received the wood grain).

For the various shades of blue and pink and gray which make up the print, I’d carve each block a bit, print each sheet, carve each block a bit more, print each sheet again a little darker, etc, etc, etc.

This is a reduction print, printed by hand using Traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques and materials (except, of course for the reduction part). Traditionally, each of the 26 blocks for this print would have been carved by hand from separate pieces of wood. But in order to save time and material and increase risk, I carved only three blocks — one to lay down an embossing for the background, one to print wood grain in the background, and the last one to print the 24 tones of the image. So each of the 52 sheets of paper was printed at least 25 times (but not all papers received the wood grain). For the various shades of blue which make up the print, I’d carve a bit, print each sheet, carve a bit more, print each sheet again a little darker, etc, etc, etc. twenty-four times!

"Mother and Child", July 2002, oban 15 x 10 inches, woodcut (moku-hanga) from several blocks with reduction -- most examples with woodgrain background from oak block

"Mother and Child", variant state without grainy background

David Bull,the well-known Tokyo printer,  held his 14th annual exhibition January 23-28, 2003 at Gallery Shinjuku Takano, Tokyo. David exhibits his prior year’s prints and sells subscriptions for his not-yet-produced work of the coming year.

For the first time, in addition to the beautiful prints he produces, Mr. Bull has included an entirely new section, “David’s Choice”, consisting of 8 interesting and beautiful prints selected from his own personal collection.

I was delighted when I learned that he had included my print among the eight selected from his personal collection. Mr. Bull wrote the following description to accompany the print (translated from the original Japanese):

Mother and Child

Type: ‘Reduction’ woodblock print
Artist: Mr. Mike Lyon (USA) – design, carving, printing
Date: July 2002

Out of all the woodblock prints you see in the gallery today, this is the only one that was carved and printed by the same person who designed it. It is an excellent example of a synthesis of western and tradtional Japanese woodblock techniques. The paper is washi, and the way of applying the pigment is the standard Japanese brush and baren method, but the way that the block was carved is completely alien to the Japanese tradition.

This is a reduction print – so named because it is made from a single block that becomes reduced in size as printing progresses. A full block covering the entire area of the image was first printed with the lightest pigment in the print. Enough sheets to make up the entire edition were printed this way (Mr. Lyon used about 50 sheets). Then a portion of the block was cut away… This procedure was repeated 24 times, ending with a very small block and a very dark pigment.

Because the block is destroyed during the process of printing a reduction print, no more copies can ever be produced, another major difference from the Japanese tradition in which blocks were used and reused many times, as long as there was a demand for the print.

Stand back a bit and look at this picture – you will hardly believe that it is a woodblock print!

Acquired: gift from the artist

The print shown is a reduction print, printed by hand using Traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques and materials (except, of course for the reduction part). Traditionally, each of the fifteen blocks for this print would have been carved by hand. But in order to save time and increase risk, I carved only one block and printed all the sheets, then carved it some more, reprinted each sheet, etc., etc. fifteen times!

Sometimes this method is called “Suicide Printing” — perhaps because, if you make a mistake, you wish you were dead — but more likely because each state of the block is destroyed by the subsequent carving, so there is no going back to pull additional prints.

"Music", May 2002, 10.5 x 7.5 chuban, woodcut reduction (moku-hanga) on Yamaguchi Hosho

my messy workspace, baren at lower left

dampening the block after the third carving

applying pigment into rice paste

brushing out the pigment

printing with baren

states 3 and 2 in my damp stack

after the third printing

In the image of my messy workspace near the top of the gallery, my baren is at the lower left, sitting on some oily cloth. The red rag above is for absorbing excess moisture from the water brush you can see sitting on top of my plastic water container. Hanging down at the top of the picture are two much more expensive brushes used for applying size and water, but for this kind of printing, I prefer my old $1.25 cheap-o brush. To the right of the baren is my block, already printed several times, above the block is the brush I used for printing. to the right of the block are small dishes containing the Prussian Blue pigment and rice paste and a ‘plant mister’ I use to keep my paper stack damp. The paper is out of the picture to the left on an “L” shaped extension so it is easy to reach. I print standing up.