After finishing art school at Syracuse University as a sculpture major, Mike Stiler spent 6 years at the Rochester Zen Center in Rochester, New York, where he was involved in the study and practice of Zen Meditation.  During this time, Stiler worked as an elementary school art teacher for inner city schools and later on, worked as a pictorial bulletin artist (billboard painter) for Foster & Kleiser of New York City.  Since Stiler had been trained to draw and paint in more or less classical tradition, it became his primary role at F & K to paint figures, faces, and hands, an interesting challenge while standing on a scaffold, ten stories above traffic.

Read more

After finishing art school at Syracuse University as a sculpture major, Mike Stiler spent 6 years at the Rochester Zen Center in Rochester, New York, where he was involved in the study and practice of Zen Meditation.  During this time, Stiler worked as an elementary school art teacher for inner city schools and later on, worked as a pictorial bulletin artist (billboard painter) for Foster & Kleiser of New York City.  Since Stiler had been trained to draw and paint in more or less classical tradition, it became his primary role at F & K to paint figures, faces, and hands, an interesting challenge while standing on a scaffold, ten stories above traffic.

In 1975, feeling a sense of completion, Stiler moved to Kennebunkport, Maine, where he built a house and helped raise two daughters.  He began his own business and, for 18 years, worked as a sign maker, specializing in custom signage and carved wooden signs. 

In 1992, Stiler and his wife Dyan Berk moved to Monhegan Island, where they lived year-round until 2001.  At that time, seeking adequate workspace to accommodate growing gallery demands, the Stilers purchased a house and studio in Lincolnville, Maine, where they live and work in the winter.

Stiler’s artwork is collected and represented worldwide.  He has benefited from residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, in Johnson, CT, as well as drawing workshops with Hugh O’Donnell and drawing intensives with Graham Nixon at the Studio School in New York City.

In 2001, Stiler initiated a series of painting workshops on Monhegan called “Radical paint,” where participants are invited to suspend their conditioned ideas of “good” and “bad” art and are encouraged to work with their immediate response to form and color.  The inspiration to develop these workshops has been a natural outgrowth of his ongoing involvement in Zen meditation combined with a constant enquiry into the creative process.

Hide