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Destinations Paddling Canoes and Painting Canvas at the Lake Atlin Centre
Destinations Paddling Canoes and Painting Canvas at the Lake Atlin Centre
| Paddling Canoes and Painting Canvas at the Lake Atlin Centre |
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| Written by Matthew Jackson |
| Thursday, 01 May 2003 03:53 |
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A small art school in northern British Columbia combines artistic pursuits with outdoor adventure When college art instructor Gernot Dick first stumbled onto Atlin Lake back in 1975 he thought he’d been swept into a dream world. After making a wrong turn off the Alaska Highway on his way back to Toronto, he followed a potholed gravel track to a stunning vista overlooking Atlin’s turquoise waters and the snow-capped St. Elias Mountains. "I’d never seen anything like it before," he says, "and I haven’t found anything like it since." So before leaving he purchased a small, decrepit miner’s shack because he knew it would give him the excuse he needed to return. For the next four years he did just that, coming back every summer to hike and paddle at Atlin Lake. Then he decided he needed a reason to stay permanently and combined his two great loves—painting and outdoor adventure—by building a school that would integrate art training with exploration. Skeptics warned him that nobody would travel to northwestern British Columbia to attend art school, but Dick dismissed them. He believed the remote setting would inspire creativity. Not only would students paint, draw and sculpt, they’d challenge themselves on nature’s palette. They’d canoe on Atlin Lake, scramble up an extinct volcano and explore the icefields of the St. Elias range. He singlehandedly set to work. For three months he toiled 20 hours a day under the midnight sun, clearing a road up the flanks of Monarch Mountain and constructing studio tents, a studio building and living quarters. He even managed to create a small reflecting pond by redirecting snowmelt. Surrounded by birch and poplar trees, he wanted a contemplative place for students to paint, sketch, paddle, or simply bask in nature’s serenity. He opened his school in 1983 and for the last two decades its success has proved him right. "The versatility of the program is exceptional," says Dick, now 68. "It’s not enough for me that my students have a lovely time here. I want them to leave with a stronger self-belief and a greater awareness of the world around them." In contrast to his popular 10-day Atlin Quest courses—which emphasize paddling, hiking and photography—his "Idea and the Creative Process" program focuses on art. Its aim is to challenge artists toward making a breakthrough. "That’s why there can be beginners and experts in the same class," he says. "I don’t teach art skills. I teach artists how to tap into what’s already inside them. What are their beliefs? What are their priorities? How do they communicate as artists? We often talk more about life than about art." The Atlin Centre’s motto is "Walking on the Edge," an invitation for students to confront the unknown through positive risk-taking and exploring new ideas. All programs are based on the notion that growth as an artist and a person comes naturally from experiencing life at a high level of awareness. In particular, Dick is a big fan of using metaphors, and while paddling he often asks his students to select a metaphor and think about it as they paddle, because, "what you think is what you are." As for paddling, he feels it’s directly related to both life and art. "How can you make a decision about life or artwork if you don’t have a direction to paddle?" he says. "First you have to figure out where you want to paddle to." He says in life people often crisscross a lake several times before figuring out they’re going the wrong way. Or they miss an important eddy and plummet downstream before they’re prepared. "The bow is my belief system," he maintains. "Where does it point to? Ahead of the bow lies the answers, but first I have to figure out where I want to paddle to, and that happens one stroke at a time." Many people’s lives have been changed by their experience at the Atlin Centre. "Anybody can draw, but Gernot shakes you up and gets you responding with all your senses," says one student who has returned five times. Dick remembers one elderly woman who, after attending a workshop, was moved to join a civil disobedience movement to speak out against logging. "She called and told me that she had just gotten arrested," he says, "and I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, what have I done?’" Dick’s intentions go well beyond showing people a good time. His primary goal is to encourage students to feel nature’s lifeblood coursing through their veins, and with that inspiration, become better artists. He also wants his students to understand themselves, figure out what they want out of life and how those motivations can be harnessed to create something meaningful on canvas. And if his students enjoy a quiet moment paddling on Atlin Lake along the way, so much the better. Info: www.atlinquest.com, (800) 651-8882. —Matt Jackson Originally Published, Paddler May-June 2003 |
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