Mike Lyon

Painting Drawing Printmaking Japanese Woodblock Printing Furniture Lighting

Dojo-ji Maiden woodcut

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Dojoji Maiden, 2000, moku-hanga, about 5″ high. Traditional Japanese Wood Block Prints pulled by hand from seventeen small cherry wood blocks. About 160 prints were pulled in all. Dojo-ji Maiden: A long time ago, a handsome young monk took shelter for the night in the home of a lonely widow. He awoke with a start […]

It’s a Dog’s Day

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This print is representative of the edition of 31 produced for the Baren print Exchange #7 in October, 2000. Exchange #7 called for a chuban sized print in the theme of “The Comedy of Life”. You can visit the Baren site on the web. This print was intended to be somewhat comical. The fun, surprising, […]

Max’s Stool

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My son, Max, and I made this stool with it’s large turned seat. It belongs to Max and sits in his room. He and I turned the seat and legs as we learned how to use my new lathe. It was very fun. Max did most of the finishing, and we both think it’s kinda cool. Stool 20 inches […]

UMB Zen Garden Meeting Room design and construction

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I was commissioned to design a meeting room at UMB Technology Center (UMB is a major regional bank). UMB named the room ‘Zen Garden’, and I’m told it’s the most popular place in the building. I made (with my own hands) everything in them room, including a table with six chairs, two large benches, two ceiling elements, […]

Triangle tiled scroll woodcuts

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I made three large woodcut ‘scrolls’ in September of 1999. Two of them were installed in the Zen Garden Room I designed and built for the UMB Technology Center in Kansas city. Two of the prints were similar (I kept one for myself), and the third was twice as wide. I had already cut a bunch […]

Hand Print Stool

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This stool has cherry legs and a birch wood seats. I was tired of sanding, had made some ugly stretchers, and didn’t like the leg orientation, so I tried to pull this piece through with paint. I painted the legs and braces black, and then covered my hands with blue paint and picked up the stool. It turned […]

Torii Stool

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OK, this has to be my best stool. I can’t keep my eyes off it. Proportions are just right, the seat so organically curved, the joints well formed and tight. It’s pretty perfect. And one leg (must be the back one in this photo) has the most beautiful open knot just above the knee. I was looking for the feel […]

Checker Stools

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I spent three weeks in the fall of 1998 at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado adding to my traditional moku-hanga and other water based print making skills with Hiroki Morinoue and Allen Smith. An artist in residence there, Ulrika Scriba from Gengenbach, Germany, was especially interested in the several booklets I had authored […]

Flat Top Stools

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These two stools both incorporate half-inch thick cherry wood seats. In order to feel secure when sitting down, I re-inforced the seats with a pair of strips underneath running across the grain and glue joints. The stools use wedged through tenon construction throughout, and the legs are pinned to the seats with purple heart dowel (after I […]

First Stools

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My first stool is all cherry wood, with a deeply sculpted seat. Looks like it would be dangerous, but it’s really quite comfortable. The top is painted a beautiful, deep, ultramarine, and the legs have been lightly stained red. Not bad for a first attempt, but not nearly as nice as the second. The  second stool has a […]