Mike Lyon

Painting Drawing Printmaking Japanese Woodblock Printing Furniture Lighting

“Madz” mokuhanga 31 x 22 inches

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Portrait of the artist Madeline Cass. Madeline was my studio assistant 2012-2013. “Madz” is another in a series of images composed of code-generated spirals whose number of wraps is related to the average value (lightness/darkness) of a corresponding area in a reference image. I wrote the initial version of the current state of my code […]

Valentine Linda – 48 x 48 inches – acrylic on canvas

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I thought of this image as “The Valentine Portrait” of my wife, Linda because of the big heart shape formed by the eyebrows and the ‘V’ of her chin in her hands. Note: most images on this site can be viewed full scale by right-clicking on the image and selecting “open link in new tab” […]

Linda – acrylic on canvas – 35 x 35 inches

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Black and white square spirals on gray ground, the black augmented by spirals in a narrower line width. I think this painting begins to balance traditional materials with novel computed tool manipulation – the process and the image become more balanced.

PRINTKITE Collaboration with Koichi Yamamoto

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I met Koichi Yamamoto in early November of 2016 during my term as adjunct professor of printmaking at the Kansas City Art Institute. Koichi was/is a professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and spent a day or two demonstrating copper engraving and printing on very light gampi paper which he printed, then folded […]

Linda in Black (mokuhanga) 41 x 29.5 inches

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Because of the way the four sets of spirals overlap in my painting Linda in Black, it seemed to be a perfect design for mokuhanga (Japanese technique woodcut). I isolated the four layers of square spiral I’d generated for the painting into four block plans: The spiral density (the number of revolutions of line in […]

untitled (four self-portrait variations ) 36 x 153 inches )

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Painted in overlapping rectangular (rather than square) spirals, each of the four canvases that make up this work is different but similar. The colors were painted in the same order on each canvas, but the orientation of the rectangles was varied so that, although the reference images are identical, each painting is different. I think […]

Elena – painting on canvas – 42 x 54 inches

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Another attempt at a more naturalistic color. The reference image in calculating the spiral densities was Elena Sherman’s face. Painted on white canvas in red, yellow, blue, black, and white, I was still working to produce intricate tiles (the seven by nine main grid). She’s in there, but you’ve got to be far enough away […]