This is the Artist Statement I wrote for:

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(It’s) This Way to That Way...

This title and the pieces in this exhibition highlight the unpredictable, un/knowable nature of The Great Mystery.

Firstly, and backing up a bit...

I do hope I’ve produced a variety of pieces which a variety of people will enjoy looking at and living with. I’m pretty confident I’ve been successful in that. The most common response I get to my work at the art fairs I frequent is... “They just make me smile.” That’s powerful in my opinion. Like good, natural medicine, my pieces seem to provide some relief from the stresses of life. Or they add some levity to the heavity.

Secondly, I like to explore the science and spirit of my work...

How did the ideas for these pieces enter my right arm? My stream of consciousness? Where do they come from? Are the ideas mine? Or do they flow from The Muses, some Cosmic Cloud of Creativity, or God/dess? Do they appear with a purpose attached?

I’m really not sure about where they come from. What I do know, is that the delivery of the colors, shapes, lines and ideas in these paintings into the material world is circuitous. There is quite a long path of discovery and learning represented in each bit of activity on each panel. I’ve been working in this way since I was a youngster.

Funnily enough, it’s fairly common for people to ask me questions like, how do you get your ideas? Or... Where do they come from? and... Do you have a clear vision, or idea in mind when you start, or do you just let the work flow as you go? When someone asks me these BIG questions about the nature of my creativity, I’m immediately in this strange and wonderful predicament. Do I begin at the beginning, by sharing my early childhood drawing (Doodling) habits? Or do I start sharing my thoughts on the Universal Oneness of all beings and things? Do I tell them my ideas come from The Ethers?

The other day a guy walked into my booth at The Bellevue Art Fair. I told him first thing that I want to make paintings that help people come together and that can help create more peace and understanding in the world... He said “Sounds like a Coca Cola commercial.” He wasn’t trying to be mean he said. “They’re great marketers” He added.

Does it matter where my ideas come from? I think it does. Because as much as I love to create paintings that I suspect people will enjoy looking at and living with, I also want to help forward the future of humankind and all life on earth. As people, I believe we need some fresh, powerful guidance on how to get along in this world. Because from my perspective, we’ve not yet found a peaceful path to a prosperous present.

So here’s an idea I’ve been toying with most of my life...

God/dess sends me ideas for my work and I receive and transmute them into art for anyone/everyone to see. I listen for the BIG ideas he/she needs to give to us humans, I receive them on some subconscious or superconscious level and turn them into collections of lines, colors, shapes, things, no-things, etc. I do this as my service to humanity. This is my job as an Artist/Shaman.

Maybe you have your own ideas about my work and other work of a similar set of threads... I’m all ears.

In Peace and Love for a Dynamic, Interesting and Long Life,

(I let the work flow as I go.)

- Mike Biskup