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!

This was my first experiment with graphite. I bought a one pound bag from Daniel Smith for about $10. Used about a teaspoon to produce these fifty-two 11″ x 8″ sheets (later trimmed to 10″ x 7.5″). Mixed the dry graphite into alcohol, then mixed that into rice paste and printed as usual. Not surprisingly, these little woodblock prints have the character and ‘feel’ of little pencil drawings. The figure is approximately 3.5″ tall. Very tiny!

"Jessica Turning", October 21, 2003, woodblock print, 11 state reduction, graphite on Yamaguchi Hosho paper approximately 10" x 7.5" (chuban)

the 11 states of the print - one block reduced by re-carving and re-printing 11 times.

detail of figure

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.

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