Mount Rainier, located in the state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest, is an active volcano that ascends to 14,410 feet above sea level and is the most glaciated peak in the contiguous U.S.A. Weather patterns at Mount Rainier are strongly influenced by the Pacific Ocean, elevation, and latitude. Clouds often cling to the peak as illustrated in Mount Rainier, Head in the Clouds.
Micah Schwaberow, printmaker, painter and sculptor, was born in Eugene, Oregon in 1948. He studied painting with Maurice Lapp and printmaking with Elizabeth Quandt at the Santa Rosa Junior College in California. In 1981, he spent a month in Miasa, Japan studying traditional woodblock printing and, in 1982, he spent most of the year in Nagai, Japan studying with the Japanese master, Toshi Yoshida, and his master carvers and printers. In September of that year, he was an assistant for his teacher during a three-week woodblock course for foreigners.