Born 1938, Armegard, North Dakota

Mortensen received a BFA degree from the Minneapolis School of Art (now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design) and did graduate work at the University of Minnesota. He turned from painting portraits to the medium of the reduction woodcut to achieve the creative freedom he desired. He is one of the few practicing artists of this method in the United States.

Where a color woodcut would normally make use of multiple blocks to handle thee various color areas, in the reduction process Mortensen does the entire print on one block. This involves gradually cutting away the surface, (the “reduction”) making a press run for one color, cutting away more, anther color and press run, until the entire surface of the block has been reduced to what will be the final surface for the last color. Obviously, this requires quite a bit of planning to make it work out correctly.

His early works have fewer colors and are smaller, but the later woodcuts frrrequently have from 23 to 47 colors and can be as large as 40 inches plus and as wide as 30 inches plus. This normally requires between 20 and 35 passes through the press, taking as much as a month to complete one block. He has usually printed on Japanese mulberry paper.

His works are in many collections, corporate, private and public institutions. He exhibits frequently, especially on the West Coast where he now lives.