Mike Lyon

Painting Drawing Printmaking Japanese Woodblock Printing Furniture Lighting

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 […]

Tea Room Table and Chairs

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These are my first furniture designs. Built from old fir high-school bleachers I salvaged plus some used fir 2x4s from concrete forms, these went into the tea room of the Kansas City Shotokan Karate dojo. Padauk wood inlay was used in the five chairs and table top to fill the many holes and defects in the old […]

Tiled Floor of vertical grain oak and padauk

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While building the dojo floor for the KC Shotokan Karate Club, we decided to leave an area for visitors and observers. We built benches along the windows, and I designed, built and laid this beautiful wood tile floor. First I measured the area, then designed the tile size (tiles had to be less than 4.5″ square so […]

Clouds and Water

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“Clouds and Water”, 1998, reduction wood-cut on Hosho, 16 x 10 inches.   Chine-colle on blue backing, 10 x 64 inches.

Portrait of Jerry Vegder woodcut over archival inkjet

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My great friend, Jerry Vegder, HATES to have his picture taken!  HATES it!  But several times, he’s made the mistake of allowing me to photograph his very interesting head!  This may be the ONLY portrait of Jerry which he finds tolerable, since the tiled woodcut completely obliterates his image!

Burning Leaf Smell woodcut

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Printed in December, 1997, this small edition of tiled woodcuts was produced for Christmas gifts that year.  The muddy colors and swirly patterns remind me of the smell of leaves burning in our gutter each fall, a practice now long abandoned (and illegal).  These were printed from a set of one-inch birch plywood tiles with […]