Woodblock Gallery

In 1988 Munenori Makino, Japan's Ukiyo-e Master, saw Mickelson's work. Makino selected Mickelson, a Caucasian American woman, to be his only student. For Mickelson and Makino it was as though they had dreamed and worked together before. Their camaraderie was a deep as the layered colors of Ukiyo-e. Their dreams were linked. He envisioned giving the 700-year-old art of woodblock printing its own singing spirit, a spirit to sing to the west. Makino and Mickelson were fulfilling artistic destiny.

Mickelson's woodblock prints (each print an original) re-unite two cultures singing their harmony in the layered liquid colors of an ancient time. These rare and inspired works cannot be created or viewed in measured time. It is said, "A Mickelson woodblock is carved into your heart as surely as it is in the cherry wood".