I started making woodblock prints in 1993, soon after the birth of our first son, Nathaniel.  In 1995 I began making prints full time (I had been a carpenter, cabinet-maker, and builder since graduating from college in 1981).  My pursuit of the Japanese hanga method has since then been not only a way to make prints.  It has deepened my aesthetic sense, taught me a lot about both the business, the tradition, and the lifestyle of making art, and has encouraged in me a deeper spirituality and love of this beautiful earth upon which we live.  The Japanese hanga method is an art form that encourages pictorial simplicity, but to learn to practice it well has been a complex adventure. As it is image-making built of parts (a separate carved block for each color), involves using the body (and a hand-held baren) as a press, and relies on a rich tradition involving aspects of both Eastern and Western culture, it has kept me engaged and challenged in a way no other activity I have met in my life has.