Mike Lyon

Painting Drawing Printmaking Japanese Woodblock Printing Furniture Lighting

Madeline and Kit, 13 x 5.7 inches, woodblock print from 17 blocks

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My intern this year, Madeline Cass (who is responsible for scanning and data entry of my collection of Japanese prints – see woodblockprints.org), and her roommate, Kit Landwehr, modeled for me June 8.  Years ago I’d really loved printing the stripes of a seersucker robe and Kit’s striped dress was a natural for another attempt […]

20 Sarahs – 100 x 70 inch acrylic and ink on four panels

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After painting a large (4.75 x 12 feet) sheet of heavy watercolor paper with red acrylic paint, I drew 20 images of Sarah jumping using white and black ink pens. The sheet was then cut into four 25 x 70 inch sheets, each with five figures, pasted with wall paper paste, and adhered them to […]

Visit with Jean-Pierre Hébert

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I usually visit Santa Barbara, California two or three times a year to attend meetings and practices at Shotokan Ohshima Dojo. This year David Altman, one of my closest friends, and I traveled together to Santa Barbara for a special practice for our rank. One of the most personally interesting artists profiled in Paul Catanese and Angela […]

Marishi-ten and Sarah – 53 x 46 acrylic and ink on panel

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In Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, Marishi-ten is the goddess of the heavens, goddess of light, and a solar deity. Although Marishi-ten worship predates Zen, it is geared towards a similar meditative mode to enable a warrior to achieve a heightened spiritual level. Losing interest in issues of victory or defeat (life and death), he is freed […]

Post-Digital Printmaking

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An accomplished artist and engineer, Lyon’s facility for investigating creative outcomes for new technologies pervades his endeavors. During his studies in the 1970s, exposure to computer-generated images such as Studies in Perception No. 1 by Leon Harmon and Ken Knowlton, as well as the processes used in the artwork of Chuck Close, had a great influence and still resonate with him today.

Cambodia 2 pen and ink drawing – 45 x 85 inches

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I’ll try to explain this series of drawings from S-21 prison in Phnom-Penh and the killing field not far away pretty soon, I suppose. The young men and women whose remains are the subject of my recent drawing were imprisoned by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia during the late 1970’s. Confined in S-21 […]