These workshops are based on the premise that all great art is telling us the same thing. It is telling us that the source, the power and majesty of the universe are here, now. The Now is always available, always fresh, always see-able, feel-able, and hear-able. Nothing is excluded. It has always been here, beyond the grasp of knowing. It is calling for us to take the leap into the unknown and, as artists, to bring back a record of our journey
We are not here to paint nice pictures. We are here to paint the Now, to start from zero.
The artist's job is to always be a beginner and move forward without a map. Great courage is required for great art, but the key ingredient is great curiosity. When we are curious, attentive, like children, we forget ourselves. In this unconditional state, success or failure becomes irrelevant.As we face the beautiful void of a blank canvas, can we simply attend and respond to...what? The color red, or cobalt, or butterscotch, or the carbon black blob in the middle or the squiggly line going nowhere, our heartbeat, or the feeling of risk in the gut?

In this stateless state, we will meet our heroes and heroines; Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and, Mozart, Miles, Walt Whitman, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Picasso, Agnes Martin, Andy Warhol...all the masters who have ever lived are waiting for us, with open arms. We find, to our amazement, that their work, instead of having faded, shines on, as alive as the day it was created, because the salient feature of the Now is that it cannot be touched by time. Pick up your brush, any brush, choose a color, the first color that calls to you, face the void and make a mark. The universe is yours.

Copyright 2/04 by Mike Stiler
Lincolnville, ME