Mike Lyon

Painting Drawing Printmaking Japanese Woodblock Printing Furniture Lighting

Grass-2 large woodblock print 22.5 x 72 inches from 16 blocks

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My lawn seems a near-perfect subject for drawings and woodblock prints.  Grass-1 was a drawing (not yet completed).  Grass-2 is a woodblock print — sixteen blocks cut two blocks to a sheet of 4×8 foot quarter-inch cherry plywood.  Grass-3 is another drawing under construction at the moment.  This format allows me to ink and print a block all from one side of my 5 x 10 foot stationary bed pinch-roller press.  Images like this one lend themselves very well to my pr0cess.  The staccato rhythm of the many transitions from lightest to darkest works so nicely (so long as registration is perfect) and I love the way the quick changes in the blades of grass are moderated by slower visual rhythms of the relatively large clover and other leaves so there’s a bit of music in this print, and a bit of mystery and drama, I feel.  Not only the visual cycle of lights and darks, but also something about birth, death, and renewal.  My eye spirals through this image, following the shafts of the grass, pausing in the leaves, circling, circling, and I notice that some things are fresh and healthy and others seem to have been chewed up and decayed — and what’s going on under that surface?  Dirt and worms and…  This kind of (somewhat allegorical) image works for me on many levels and I don’t imagine I’ll grow tired of looking at it… Time will tell!