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October 2, 2002 Dear Alumni and Friends of the Atlin Centre, It's quiet now; the foxes and I are the only things moving up here, around the pond. Even the trees are shutting down - they look lifeless, stripped of their leaves, getting ready for what's to come. A white blanket is stretched over the mountains, brushing out the last remaining colours. It's quiet also in the house, just the odd phone call… and quite different from the calls I get during spring and summer. Those summer calls were alive -- the voices had a sparkle -- like: "Hi Gernot, I heard about your school, I'm coming this summer!" (That is my most favourite call of all to get). Now they are different; they go like this: "How are you this evening?" -- with a sterile, empty voice attempting to put some feeling into the words. "I'm fine!" My nerves twitch and my eyes are looking over the lake, past the mountains, into infinity, trying to escape. "I'm glad to hear that," it goes on. I already anticipate the next questions - as they go like "Are you the man of the house". "Yes". "Is your wife at home?" And on and on it goes, empty of any meaning, full of bad information and without any understanding. Just getting my Austrian name right is a big success for them, and you can just imagine some of the conversations around my name! In the end I manage to say I'm not interested, before my hand, guided by a force beyond myself, puts down the receiver. When you think of the beauty and purity of where I am receiving those stupid calls, the contrast is shocking. But I must say the spam e-mails bring some colour into my life. I'm getting about 40 each day and growing! They say that gigantic "spider-engines" are crawling into my Web site, picking up my e-mail address. I like to imagine thousands of spiders crawling around in virtual space. I picture one morning walking into my office and seeing this big spider sitting in my computer chair, exhausted and confused, having escaped virtual space! That's what I get - confused -- when I open some e-mail messages. They are sure getting more colourful and even cryptic, like: "We can add on 3 inches of more fun in your life", or "Go big now, 4 inches overnight", or "Your money-back guarantee if a certain body part doesn't get bigger by 27%." Why can't they be more specific? Imagine! I could wake up in the morning, walking around with one leg, hand or ear 27% bigger than the other!" I value symmetry in my life! Then there is the most absurd sales pitch of all "Nature isn't always right!" That really drives me up the wall! Can you imagine trying to convince me, of all people, that nature isn't right -- where for me, throughout my life, my only true, inspirational mentor was and is nature? Nature taught me that the mountains are for reaching for the sky, shaping and meeting the height of my spirit. I tell you about these e-mails with some humour, but really, it's sad that we, the human, are the only species that cannot accept what we have been given by nature. A fortune, billions, we spend to look or to be different from what we are. To start with, YOU ARE NOT what you eat and YOU ARE NOT how you dress. YOU ARE NOT what you look like. YOU ARE what you think! To me, the tree in nature is a symbol of integrity. Standing for 100, 200, even a 1000 years and longer and every second of it, wanting to be nothing else except that tree. Most of us in our lifetime don't reach that clarity of being, not even for seconds. If the tree would attempt to look a little bit like the neighboring tree, or the oak tree wanted to have leaves like the palm tree, or the spruce tree wanted longer and fatter cones like the pine tree, then we truly could (would) say that nature isn't right -- it looks stupid. But even worse, the tree would die. Within one season the tree would be extinct. That is what we are, extinct and cut off from our potential, for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. It's clear to me, when I observe the integrity in the natural world that evolution shaped, that we are the most pathetic creatures of all. I believe that nature offered us the chance to be something better, if we had listened. We are still pushing ahead with high speed. In spite of the fact that we now know, that we are hiding high speed in the wrong direction and that the wheels are coming off -- do we begin to listen now? Last winter, by skiing into the "wild", I had one of the most privileged learning experience nature ever offered me. It had a "meeting" with the wolves. The story is somewhat long -- I could not tell it shorter -- but I would rather send it, instead of another wonderful, successful Atlin Centre summer report - which it truly was! The program for summer 2003 will be identical to last summer (including the "Teresa Island Quest" and the "4 Crown Mountain Quest"). Please visit the Web site; by January it will be updated. As an "active" alumni member, for the annual fee of $20, you get a substantial 20% discount when you return for an Atlin Quest wilderness adventure or an Art Workshop. Please visit the Web site and make an entry in the guest book (just say hello, or if you wish, leave your testimonial, etc.) "Who is the Beast?"It's difficult to put the story of my life into words - especially since English is my second language - and besides, since my school years, I'm allergic to writing. Once I attempted to write because I accidentally hugged a Black bear, or accidentally, he hugged me, taking part of my nose off. I wrote about it, and reading it was nearly as killing as the act itself. It's difficult to make something believable in words, when the doubtful mind, even by the camp fire, can't warm up to a story, a drama, which just about took one's life. Perhaps it just doesn't move people any more if you aren't at least dead. (As an artist/art educator for many years, I know making vital art is also an act of laying your life down, and there too, the skeptics often can't see it 'til one is dead). The bear incident happened years ago - too long ago to tell it. The emotions have already digested the experience; - and if it doesn't come from the heart anymore, to tell it by memory is too exhausting. But the attack by the wolves happened just a few weeks back. I still wake up with a fury in me as if I have to fight the devil himself. And if I tell it, it feels to me as if I step into the skin of another being - have never felt that way, such raw power coming alive in me - scary! Who am I? What creature am I? And how can I write about it, if I preach for years, that a Wolf will never attack a human, as long as one keeps vertical with body and mind. It is the seventh winter that I have skied annually around Teresa Island, the highest fresh water island on earth with a circumference of 75 km. Teresa Island sits' in Atlin Lake in the most northern tip of British Columbia near the Alaska/Yukon border. Its peak, Birch Mountain rises some 1540m from the lake. The island has its own cariboo herd living on the higher plateaus and one of the densest grizzly populations known. Of the 16 grizzlies I have met, most of those encounters I had on Teresa Island. The Island is in the midst of a magical wilderness landscape. During the summer I have the base camp for the Atlin Quest wilderness adventures on its shore. It's a 75-km ski into nowhere, a mountain wilderness visited by few, especially in the winter. But, as the lake freezes over by January, groups of snowmobilers, never one machine alone in case of breakdown, venture far into that solitude. No road. No hut. No people. You are alone. In part, that is the fascination for me - how far can I go? Whatever - sunny or blizzard or overflow - just with body and mind - and still come back! The challenge is that I ski the 75 km in one sweep, with the minimum possible. No stops. I drink from the water bottle if not frozen, eat the apple and one sandwich as I ski. It's like taking temperature once each year, where my body and mind is at, checking if I'm still connected to the SELF and the universal force. It's good to know that stuff, as I take people on 10-day trips into the wilderness. But the biggest challenge of all is challenging myself teaching art, which to me is the most adventurous of all that I do. Fifteen human beasts searching for self-expression and higher consciousness, finding original concepts, and testing their beliefs, living and life. Such tasks test me equally on all levels - and it's exhilarating, dramatic, and scary, with crying and laughter. The commitment to this process turns me inside out, because as humans we have lost our sense of direction; we sure know it all, but we don't know who or what we are and where we are going. The "beast" in the wild out there could tell us the answers, but we are not listening. It is 4 days after the Teresa Island Quest, an annual ski event that I organized. It is 7am. I ski off from town; slowly the houses behind me fade into the winter landscape. The biting air feels cold in the early morning - its needle-like teeth bite into my joints, not yet warmed up. The snow conditions on the frozen lake are good. The 6 km to the first channel, took 20 minutes - "whauuu" am I fast! 75-km through 6 is 12 or so, times 20, is around 240, divided by 60 - good god, I would be back in 4 hours! I'm too fast! I will never make it around. But, - it's addictive, feeling the speed as I glide along in skating style - each shift of the body-weight onto the other ski pulls me forward, using that rhythm - and fine tuned, using the muscles to the minimal possible, planting the poles inches from the binding, swinging the arms all the way through - just like they talk about on the Golf channel when I click accidentally the wrong button. I must slow down if I want to finish strong. It always matters to me more how I finish a task and less how I start it. Now I have the right pace - breathing deep - even rhythm, like a pendulum shifting from one ski onto the other. I am sinking into the NOW - being one with mind and body, connected with what arms and legs are doing, my vision scaled down, from the ski tips and to about 3 meters ahead - entering fully into the experience - skiing - on and on, a rite away from all else. I dream, riding on my body's rhythm - now touched by warming sun rays dancing on frozen waves - passing Bird Mountain on the left, Section Mountain to my right. I'm entranced by the spell around me of miles of high mountain ridges glittering in light and the intensity of my focus inside of me. After two hours breathing the cold air, my mouth and throat is dry. Sips of water with cranberry juice and sugar, to get me through - what if I put in too much? Also, did I calculate my time and km right? Often I think the secret is time. "In time" - like today, even my nose actually looks better than it did before - even my sisters say so! And what if wind comes up or a blizzard? I might run into overflow for long stretches - still shifting my body, staying in rhythm - should I fall and the binding breaks, then I'm screwed. Would somebody come by? Not in weeks! I'm close to the next narrows, still 40 km to ski - in the distance, to my right, I see spruce boughs which have been blown onto the ice - what else would it be, - 100 - 150 meter away? Double poling, I push over sections of blank ice; the skis have no grip. Don't fall! - if the binding breaks, I'm screwed! Suddenly, the spruce boughs are moving - coming towards me - curious as cariboos are, also in such numbers - they must be cariboos. (My god! how do you spell cariboos?) Hardly taking notice - my visual focus is in front of the ski tips - and shifting, holding the rhythm, not wasting energy - every muscle fined tuned, not using more power than what is needed to keep gliding. Now 200 feet and they still keep coming - united, not scattered like Cariboos and, suddenly, running in a trot, and, within seconds, they shape a half circle with precise distance from each other, over a spread of 200 feet - that's no cariboos -!! Wearing my sunglasses and not my corrected ones, I try to focus - Jesus, those are Wolves! A bigger pack than I have ever seen! I can't believe - they still keep coming in trot towards me - any moment they will stop, watch me, study me, 'til their curiosity is satisfied. They might trail me for a while, and honored I feel always when they do, that they take note of me - me, a human. Being trusted or respected by a wild animal is, to me, one of the greatest privileges I can ever be granted. What's the matter with them? - Jesus, they still keep coming - 30 meters away. Don't they know that they are Wolves? Their hunting strategy, the precise half circle with precise distance from each other, threatens me most. I feel a gripping sensation coming over my body. Their heads low and necks stretched forward - don't they know that I am a human? Maybe I'm the cariboo to them? My skiing rhythm, similar to a cariboo running - what else would I be to them? No human is ever back here alone without a noise of a motor from a snowmobile. Left and right, the circle is closing around me! I start shouting at them - they must stop - I take my skis off to be able to fight - I have one more minute - instinctively, I reach for my rucksack, which is at home. And why should I bring pencil flares or the knife; the bears are sleeping. I raise my voice to the fullest; in one minute it will be over - It can't be! A fury, a force, which I have never experienced, comes alive in me, Years back, by some mountain climbs or in white-water, I had close calls, but my instinct responded with calm and heightened focus - now it feels as if a lightning bolt surged through me tearing the Wolves or the whole universe apart. I swing one ski over my head, shout with everything I have in me, which triggers another force in me - now they are 5 meters away, in a half circle around me - two black Wolves in the middle of the attack-line are the closest - their heads ducked low, their hair straight up on their backs - they must snap out of the attack - I am human. I am no moose, no cariboo - they will have me to pieces in minutes. As a last resort, hoping they will stop, I run towards the two black Wolves, with leaps not anything near what a caribou could manage, swinging my ski just feet in front of their noses - they stop - but left and right the rest of the pack keeps closing in. I leap and hop left and right, swinging the ski at them, and now - they all stop - the circle nearly closed around me. None is moving; all necks stretched low and looking ugly. No motion. Some snarl their teeth; their eyes focused on me! If they don't run off now, if just one gets me, the rest will be all over me in seconds. They must run off now, otherwise it's over! I focus on the two black ones in front of me, swinging and slamming the ski on the ice in front of them. Now they turn and run - faster than they came, and the pack follows them, scattering over the ice in all directions. I come back to myself, not able to comprehend what has happened - "not possible", I keep saying, putting on my skis. "Not possible", and I start skiing. "This could have been the end! Not possible!?" Skiing too fast, I run out of strength and breath. Exhausted, I stop leaning on my poles. I look back - there they are again in a pack of twelve. I ski on and they follow. I stop. They stop, in normal, civilized Wolf behavior. "What was wrong with you guys? I'm a human. What took you so long to snap out of it?" My mind carried on questioning, not focused any more on my rhythm or distance covered. Why did they attack and why did they not take me? They were lying on the ice waiting for me. What stopped them? Perhaps it was, when, as a last resort, I ran against them? Wolves came close to me before, but not in trot and not in this half circle attack strategy which threatened me to my very bones. Now, 20 minutes later, I ski and they follow; I stop, they stop. That's familiar, that's what they do because they are Wolves. With tears running down my cheeks, I turn once more, overcome with emotions - lifting my arm, waving, as a group of trees swallows them. Again I stop, emotions overcoming me with deep sadness as I realize the integrity and truth of a Wolf and the sadness of what is human. I am reflecting on what I have been speaking about for many years; living my life with 3 metaphors: The Mountain, the Tree and the Wolf. Those are inspirational mentors, which help me to become a better human, as I try to live truer and closer to what the universal truth holds. Five billion years of evolution hold a lot of wisdom - the Wolf, if we would follow him, could show us the way! Perhaps I am too nostalgic about mother earth, in regard to what happened out there, but I must say that the meeting with the Wolves teaches me. There is a more essential, a more transcending way the "beast" can teach us humans. We have not learned to define the line of when to kill and when not to kill. The wolf has integrity and does not deviate from his truth, even in hunger and despair. How did they finally "see" me that caused them to back off, or did they realize, "hey, we are wolves he's not and we don't do that! A pack of 12 needs a big kill in the winter - it would have been no effort to tear me to pieces, especially when psyched into the hunt. Still, they didn't take me; they stepped back; they listened to the higher truth within the clockwork of evolution. I was beyond the halfway point skiing past Cariboo Island, when I saw again a dark spot on the ice. I skied towards it - it was butchered meat, bait laid out to shoot the Wolfs. I could not stop the tears - they had just given me my life - and we take theirs just because we like to kill. We kill for many reasons - for hunger, greed, race, power, religion, and some of us even kill because we like it. And, even further, it shows our arrogance when we curse our own kind, "You are like an animal!"; "You are like a beast!". What an insult to every creature in the wild, that we use the animal as a metaphor for inhumanity. If anything, it is our civilization which is the dangerous wilderness. For thousand of years, we slaughter each other, always intelligently developing just reasons to whitewash the bloodbath. And then the arrogance in the belief that we are the chosen, even that we are the chosen to live beyond death, or even to return under another mask. We just can't face, that we will be as dead as a mosquito and why should we deserve better?! If there should be reincarnation, I would feel honored to return to a higher calling, by living in the wild as a Wolf. Gernot Dick, © www.atlinart.com Toll free 1-800-651-8882 Atlin, April 22, 2002 |
| January 7, 2003 Dear Alumni and Friends of the Atlin Centre - Some of you - most of you - are probably surprised that I mail again with snail mail, since I have announced various times that the literature and Alumni Letter would come by e-mail. But what an avalanche of responses I got from many of you who do not have e-mail and are waiting for the next Alumni letter! It seems you enjoy reading Atlin News and the other peculiar things, which sneak into my life and head. So here I am again - except this time I truly have nothing to tell - certainly nothing like the "Meeting with the Wolves". But maybe something comes to mind or might happen before I finish this letter. (People phone for the Wolf Story. Please visit the web site www.atlinart.com and click on “testimonials”). Thank you for all the exceptional heart warming comments on the wolf-story. I also cherished the various fascinating wolf encounters from around the world which some of you send. Should you know of any source about wolf behavior please send them to me, as I collect them. Also thank you to those who have sent the annual Atlin Center membership of $20 ($15 US). Even if you are not planing for a discounted Atlin Summer Workshop, please consider a membership ones in a while, it will help with the expenses of the mailing, which this year has climbed to over 1000 names. And please let me know if you wish to remain on the mailing list, and whether you want to receive the Alumni Letter by e-mail or snail mail. Oh yeah, of course - the weather - that's new! Atlin should be, since November, in a deep freeze. But every winter is getting warmer and it seems I am living in paradise. On sunny days I stroll on the Atlin Lake shore, along promenades of palm trees, and in my back yard - my life's dream - I pick, for breakfast the fresh mango from the tree! Of course at present it's just a dream. But if El Nino is further sneaking up the Pacific Coast, frostbites will be a thing of the past. Today January 17, it is -1 Celsius and there is no ice on the lake. Sadly that could also mean that the 75km ski marathon "Teresa Island Quest," which I organize annually, might have to be canceled. We expect 220 skiers from far and wide - what a refreshing experience it would be for the sleepy Atlin town. For information on the T.I.Q. please visit www.atlin.net/atlin_quests I'm not alone. Mother fox trusts me - she lets me stroke her back and I feel her bushy tail sliding through my hand. Retreat guests are coming for a 1-3 week winter retreat. They stay in the Log Cabin, in the Residence Building, or in the Studio Apartment. I get invited for tasty gourmet meals, hours of world-changing, philosophical discussions and story telling. Past midnight I walk up the hill to my house under a starlit dome and the Aurora is performing its ghostly dance in the northern sky. An Atlin Winter retreat can do wonderful things to your heart and mind. It's a bargain: accommodation with kitchen for one week is $200 Can. ($220 Can. if you bring your friend, $420 for a whole month) and includes hydro and firewood. Are you considering returning to Atlin for a summer workshop? As much as I love to see new faces each summer, it is always the most heart-warming feeling when each year some of you return. Yes, Pat, for the 9th time I will have your special place ready again, and this time, the climb to the top of Cathedral Mountain! Pat, from New York, is a metaphor in itself for "Curiosity" and "Responding" - the keys to growth. Now it comes to mind - there is something important to me I can share with you. Some weeks ago I wrote a new handout, about an experience that taught me many things over many years. It was a "tool," which shaped my life. Curiosity and Responding - the beginning of all things! I send you all my best wishes, much success in your creative searches and peace in your life and heart. Affectionately, It promises to be a beautiful dawn as I sit, on a sloped sill, just four feet from the edge. Suddenly, I become aware that the ancient sill's deteriorated mortar is covered with fine sand. Sand, in this case, like tiny ball bearings. And I realize that if I start sliding, there is nothing to hold onto, nothing to grab. I ask myself why I'm sitting here, on this high ledge? To escape mentally from the predicament, my mind leaps and I look into the distance, over the city roofs, through the morning haze. I see the Danube, sparkling in the first rays of the sun. And slowly, slowly, I begin to slide on the sloped sill. A fall from the church tower to the 1000-year-old cobblestone 60 meters below will leave nothing of me on those ancient stones but a bloody heap of rags. The twin towers rise majestically over Passau, "the Three River City." It gets its name from the fact that the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz Rivers meet there, shaping a peninsula on which Passau, a military and church stronghold since the early Middle Ages, was built. The cathedral is the biggest baroque structure in central Europe. It has the largest church organ in the world and in its two towers hang seven bells. One is said to be the mightiest church bell in the world, its voice reaching far down the Danube Valley. Before sunrise, I find my way up into one of those two towers, hoping to get a great shot as the sunrises over the city and the valley of the Danube. Curious and eager, I am just 23 years old and have learned very little – I sit on the sloped windowsill, in one of the four big arches. The big bell is hanging behind me, still sleeping in the dim morning light of the tower. Slowly I slide a few more centimeters towards the edge. My heart begins to pound. Can I get back up the sill? I realize that my feet, hands and seat may not have enough friction to let me shinny back up. Some muscles seize. Sudden panic. The camera hangs from my neck. I ask myself…why did I climb out? Am I that fearless? Am I that stupid? Sitting here, frozen in panic, I can't imagine what I was thinking. Was I thinking? Or was I just responding again to the inner voice – the voice that says, "Yes, you can. Yes, you must." Now I remember. That's what it was - I was curious to see if I could get a better shot from there! Yes, that was the reason – I was curious as to whether I could get the picture. I thought I would take the shot, then shinny back up the sill, and be safely home in 20 minutes. So I just have to sit here, calm, relaxed and contemplative, taking in the view over the valley, being the only one awake and thinking of the 200,000 people still sleeping below, observing for them the fleeting morning moment. Right, that's why I'm here. That's why I must sit here. I had to do it for that reason. It's not stupidity. Just wait for the right moment, take the shot and leave. I nearly manage to beam myself, at least mentally, away from reality, when I realize that I am not able to reach for the camera, afraid that I will start sliding again if I move one hand. I sit motionless. So I'm not sliding. My heart isn't pounding and my…except suddenly there's an explosion. It's inside my head and all around me. The tower starts vibrating and again a thundering bolt hits me, pushing me further to the edge of the sill. I am paralyzed, every muscle frozen, and then there's an even louder clap. It's as if I'm inside a bomb, as the bell behind me builds its terrifying voice. Each time the clapper hits the bell, the tower shakes. I can't move. My hands, my legs are frozen – they are not mine any more. I only exist in my fear – seeing only the twenty centimeters of sill in front of my toes, the narrow stretch of sloped stone that separates my falling off the tower. God is pushing me off the tower for being curious, for doing what I have to do. I hang there, between heaven and earth, through one roaring boom after another. Forty crashing waves of sound push me closer to the edge; I fall forty times…until finally the last toll sounds, the bells slow and grow quiet and the tower stops shaking. I sit, unable to move back up - afraid even to think. But I must get back up off the sill. Slowly I gain a little more friction by leaning on the wall of the arch beside me. Yes, friction – that is what I loved about my climbing – using friction. Friction and concentration. Responding from within. After climbing so many mountains, I will not fall down onto a city sidewalk. Concentration – along with the belief that I can move one hand or one foot at a time. Responding with everything I have, with all my senses, generates power for magic beginnings and unexpected solutions. Responding from within – that force from within – is what got me out there onto the ledge and it is the same force that got me back in. Responding from within is the beginning of all things, of all growth and all discoveries. In our daily lives, in our art making, in our relationships…responding with all you've got opens your imagination, brings your hopes, your fantasies – your creativity - alive. Responding with all your senses is the key to living connected to the self and to all things around you. But you must trust yourself, your responding from within must be true to your own soul, to your values, to your single necessity, to your priorities and it has to be true to the core of your being - to your INDIVIDUALITY. So knowing all that, one would say, provides a simple recipe to live connected with the SELF. But there is one more torch, burning higher above all, to bring light into the dark, and that is CURIOSITY. Curiosity? Of course I'm curious, most everyone says. But I mean CURIOSITY that makes you fly to infinity, to the outer space of your imagination; CURIOSITY, which turns you into a fireball, with zest enough to strip the flesh from your bones. If you don't challenge your curiosity, you let life pass by, you stop living, and you are stuck in the ordinary with the masses. Curiosity is the trigger to ignite endless energy. Curiosity gives you choice; it opens doors in your mind and in everything you do. It gives you the freedom to live content within your own being, celebrating your INDIVIDUALITY - the highest thing you got! The keys, then, are these: burnish your curiosity to a high shine, live it without reservation; respond with all you have, with every fiber of your being; and celebrate your individuality, in all its light and dark places of the soul. Gernot Dick, Director Atlin Art Centre 
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| December 9, 2003 Dear Alumni and Friends of the Atlin Centre Greetings! It's time to share some Atlin Centre news. In recent months, or more likely for the last two years, my reflections took me through layers of my past - reconstructing my life to extract some truths - for a better understanding of the present. This process is much like the 3 hour walk to Llewellyn Glaciers where I feel I travel through the last 15,000 years of geological changes - horizontally, and then when I look at the ice, vertically - where hundreds of meters of ice-layers improve our understanding of the climate long gone and possibly give hints of what is to come. Digging through layers of many years, deep down I dug up thoughts and feelings that kept repeating themselves in cycles of years, and today, there is the cycle again. For the last 25 years, I was engaged in a mission that gripped me so deeply I had to stick to it - making it my "single necessity". Today I feel better about myself because I lived true to it. I believed I had to give something back. I was not naive enough to think that I could save the world; I just tried to do my part. 35 years of teaching and building/directing the Atlin Center taught me many things. Now it's time for a change. I need a new climate to gather a new vision. This brings me to feeling that it is time to sell the Atlin Centre. But selling the Atlin Center is like a cold wind blowing down (the mountain) to my back door and a blizzard blurring my sight, not knowing which rope to grip - like walking into the unknown looking for the gateless gate. What should I do? What will become of the Atlin Center property? It is important to me that the property continues as an art retreat for people involved in a creative process. I'd like to share an idea, which some Alumni and a guest teacher suggested: a group of Alumni could get together and buy shares in Atlin Center. In 5 months I will list the property for sale, at www.atlinart.com/propertyforsale. Before I do that I must see if the Alumni wish to take it over, as I do want the property to continue as a stimulating catalyst for creative people. If an alumni group takes over ownership of the 15 acres and all the facilities, which is my favorite solution, I will reduce the price to $100,000. If there are 20 participants then the cost for each would be only $30,000 CDN. This is an amazing price for a lifetime of vacations or living there all year around. You can be part owner of Atlin Center's wonderful 15 acre property. All residence, tents and studio facilities, smoke house, sauna, hot tub are for your use, and you can have your own garden. There are more than 20 great, private building sites for cabins on the property (see enclosed map). You can choose to build your own private cabin without any additional costs for land or roads - and all this without the expense of land surveys or Ministry of Health permits. You do not need a building permit nor is there a building code in Atlin. If you are interested, please phone or email me in the next two weeks (by January the email address will change to: atlinart@allstream.net. I have to know if there are 18 Alumni & friends wanting to have a slice of this paradise. If you show interest I will phone you and will send you more information immediately. As this is still in the planning stages, I would also welcome your suggestions. Should you not reach me by phone through the toll free number, please leave your name and phone number or send an email. David and Elissa are the current caretakers of the Atlin Art Center and they can give me your messages, should I not be at home. Their number is 250-651-9693. As this needs careful planning, please phone now. At present three people are already committed and two more show interest. In summer 2004 as usual, I will teach the 3-week workshop, Idea and Creative Process, and following that, the 10-day Wilderness Adventure program. For dates, fees and all details, please visit the website: www.atlinart.com. Since you will be already there, please make a guest book entry in the website. I know it sounds like a broken record, but like every year, I have to say it again, what a wonderful, successful exciting summer it was. Thank you for your trust in coming to Atlin for summer 2003 and especially, I want to thank the former alumni for returning. There is more good news: I am landscaping the Atlin Center property. After I cleared the thousand willows, the property revealed itself in all its splendor and truths (beauty). Skiing in Norway!!! That will be the treat of my life! As most of you know, in recent years I started cross-country skiing. Last winter, the Whitehorse x-country ski club held the 2003 Canadian Master's Championship (Master's means the "old guys"). So happens, as I live by "responding with all you (I've) got", I won a few medals. In February 2004 the World Championship will be held in Lillehammer, Norway, on the Olympic facilities. Some "wise" guys suggested that I should compete! Now, as I live by responding, I think so too! I have to - so "tomorrow" - I will start training. I can't quite believe it, me as a novice skiing in Norway, the headquarters of the x-country skiing elite. I hope you all think of me, as I need all your support, as there is strength in numbers - strength in over 1000 alumni and friends! I'm there from Feb.22 to March 7, 2004. If you plan to return to Atlin in summer 2004, you might be wise to register before I leave to Norway, just in case I lose my mind completely. My best wishes for the holidays and for the New Year, many exciting discoveries in your creative search. As always, your friend, Gernot |
| Atlin May 14, 2004 Dear Alumni and Friends of the Atlin Centre, Thank you for the phone calls and emails from so many of you, wanting to know if I'm still alive after the 2004 World Championship ski races in Lillehammer. Norway and its people are super cool, as some of you would say. Sure thing I didn't win the world championship, but never the less, I did my best and left a lot of Russians and Norwegians behind. I'm going to give it another try next year in Russia, and if I don't win that one, there is always 2006 in Italy. You know how I love endurance sport, as it demands positive thinking...oh ja, and "responding with all your senses!" Like a spring flood, I'm already swept away preparing for the coming summer events. Various private retreats are booked outside of the workshops. This weekend I will put the boat in the Lake, as the first boat charter/glacier walk is coming up. Besides right now the place is bustling with life. Thirty-one people are here for a silent meditation retreat. On the south slopes, the Crocuses and Arnica are blooming and the trees are pumping their sap. By walking through the forest the spring scent around me is giving me another "Atlin High"! Life is intoxicating! The Alumni Condominium plan of twenty people buying the property together did not come to fruition. The more I contemplate the future, the clearer it gets in my mind and heart that this little "paradise" must continue as a creative retreat of some sort. So it's not that I forgot to list the Atlin Centre for sale. A voice inside me still says, WAIT! In the mean time the 3-week workshop in July, is nearly fully enrolled (two open spaces). So, how can I shut down the place if people keep coming? In time, life will offer a solution. For the 2004 10-day Wilderness Adventure program, I'm able to offer to you as ALUMNI a greater discount ($600 less), but you should respond soon, as there are just three spaces open. Please visit the website www.atlinart.com for detailed information. In conclusion I want to tell you that the Atlin Centre and I are alive and well, and that I'm carrying on with the Centre till…? Best wishes and much success in your creative search. Your friend, Gernot |
| September 12, 2004 Dear Alumni and Friends of the Atlin Centre, Here in the north one thing one often wishes for is a little bit more warmth. This summer we got it. It was dry, sunny and hot since the early spring melt, with just two or three solid rainy days. Therefore the glacier melt was enormous. Therefore the Atlin Lake water level reached record height - therefore the Atlin River is rushing down like an inferno - therefore the Saskatoon and Cranberry berries on the Art Centre's property are hanging in droves from the bushes - therefore we have Black Bears on the property stuffing themselves with my berries and cooling themselves off in my pond. Therefore we rushed and picked so far 25 litres of them and still the bears are getting most of the berries. Therefore I now must eat lots of Vanilla Ice Cream as it is good for the digestive system when you have to eat lots of Saskatoon berries. The weather for our Atlin microclimate, I find is a blessing. People swim in Atlin Lake. The water at its warmest measured 19 Celsius. Thirty years ago it reached hardly 10 Celsius. Atlin Centre by climate or activity is not yet in deep freeze. The living spaces are filled with former Alumni on a private retreat, wilderness adventurers and a family from Germany, Harm and Birte with their two children looking forward to experiencing an Atlin Winter. Atlin - the Paradise of the North - a place of magic - a dream - many people want to live their lives in it - and still we are very few people living here all year around. Atlin is actually shrinking since the remaining gold in the earth is now deeper in the ground. But if we learn to dig deeper, and if you come to Atlin looking for an echo of your spirit, than you will find your wealth and that the answers for your dreams are right here. Yes, be connected to the now, to your reality, but always have a dream. Dream it with all your passion and determination. It will inspire you and smitten your soul and unseen forces will gather with you and make the dream come true - no matter how difficult the situation is or where you live - in Atlin or in the "wild" concrete jungle. For me, too, the digging since my last Alumni letter gave me clarity about my dream - my truth - what living in the north is to me. This place helps me to live simpler - my private life that is! The forces around me and inside of me are closer to the surface. Since you have left Atlin, did your Atlin dreams and discoveries filter into your life? Is your digging still going deeper or is it time to call in new forces by coming back to Atlin? It's time to make plans - what are your dreams for next summer? People are already signing up for Summer 2005. To some of you I am sending slides and please realize that you can have made paper prints of it. If you have no use for slides, you can send them on to another Alumni friend. It was a delight to welcome Alumni back again this summer and a thank you to the new Alumni for coming and making the 2004 summer experience exceptional. The three-week course was enriched by the exceptional participation of the Artist in Residence, Helena Hadala. This year, three participants from the three-week art workshop also stayed and participated in the ten-day Wilderness Adventure Program. Also I thank this summer's three-week participants for making more unique and "truthful" contributions in illustrating the "Glacier Monster". But nothing yet fills the gap in the illustrations that the passing away of Petou left. WHAT A SPIRIT! Please keep in mind, that your $20 ($15 US) Alumni membership makes you an active alumni member and you will get a 20% discount for any Atlin program when you return again. Atlin Centre moves into its 21st year of continuous "walking on the edge"! I look forward to seeing you back again for summer 2005. Please visit the website for the 2005 arrival days of the three programs. I enclose receipts for your memberships and summer 2004 workshops and please let me know should I have overlooked a payment to you of $150 for creating a 2004 participant. Loyalty to you! If you received this Alumni Letter by email, please save it. All Atlin Centre information and Atlin Town news, I would like to send by email, twice every year. It saves a half a tree and $600 stamps. If you have received this letter by mail, please be so good and send me an email greeting to atlinart@allstream.net so I have your email address. Please don't delay, as I will send the next Alumni Letter in January 2005. For detailed workshop, travel information and Alumni credits for all Atlin Centre programs, please visit the website www.atlinart.com This morning there is fresh snow on the mountain. It's tough to sit by the keyboard when the 'Atlin High' surges through me. If I don't get out there soon, Mt. Adam, a mountain I want to climb for three years now, will be a wintry challenge or be again postponed for next year. Yes, to all your many questions, I have started to draw. Some big format drawings last month and finally I made a small step and cleaned up my brushes. When I just think of painting again I feel a shiver going through me. Is it excitement of reaching higher places? But in spite that the mountain is in a mist, I must climb it - and don't we all know, that every one who falls has wings! My best wishes and much success in your creative search and always remember that small doors some times open up into large rooms. Affectionately, Gernot |
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Atlin, December 23, 2004 Dear Alumni and Friends of the Atlin Centre, Before the year comes to an end, I want to share the traces it left in this northern paradise and inside me. Where, I wonder, has my life fallen. Has the axis shifted somewhere? Should I look for the "black box" to find out what went wrong. Everything seems to be upside down, because we ignore the given laws of nature. Our weather is our daily reality check of this fact. But my life - is it that I stopped listening to my inner core or calling, or it's time to break away from familiar patterns? Yes, I'm a man looking in two directions, having my feet and heart in two countries, looking at two flags, filtering the best out of it what lies in between. The contemplation's are enriching, seductive, haunting and promising for opening new doors. They are luring me in, confusing and stunning me, laying out a new palette. Some days ago a pipe started leaking - I asked David to fix it! You can't imagine how wonderful it felt! And recently, many more things I asked people to assist. People have come, lent a hand and I was free! I left and went south for a 3-week ecstasy of powder skiing, first x-country skiing at the excellent Silver Star Club Resort and than downhill skiing at Whistler. Of course I had to fly south for that, as here in the North it was too warm, with no snow. As I say, the axis has shifted. If we don't start listening the lights will go out and life as we know it will end. As Aldous Huxley says: "Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards". Here we are, still raising the flag of "PROGRESS" high on the mast of economic conveniences. We fail to grasp that our only natural capital is the air, the land, the water and the forests. And more (misleading?) flags we hold high. There are flags on top of mountains. Every parade has many flags. Every enemy has a flag and every battle needs a flag so we can recognize on which side to stand. Many flags we march behind and flags we are supposed to kill and die for. We even put a flag on the moon. What flags will we put on other planets, telling about us? Do we have a flag for humanity, culture, for higher consciousness, for motherhood, a flag for children, or even just a little flag for truthful living - in harmony with the universal forces I mean? Most of you know that on New Years midnight I always slept or stood on top of a mountain to set the mind right for the year ahead. But no such chance this year. This is new to me, as I will visit some friends down south to do some sort of celebrating of something. And I'm starting to paint again. Painting, doodling indulging by putting paint onto canvas - how wonderful, sinful and right that feels!! In the past, for Christmas I always brought home a tall, eight foot tree and put "52" candles on it. This year a little, young tree stands out in the winter night with one candle of mine lighting up the darkness. If we all make an effort to light up the darkness and each one just chooses one flag and to let it shine for your chosen single necessity, we might have still a chance to get it right. Recently a friend sent me a book to read. Most of you know that's not a good thing to do, as I'm allergic to reading. I admit, I did read two little books in the many years and that was just because I was jammed into this sardine can, flying to Australia and there truly was nothing better to do and it did help me to escape the situation at hand. But last week, reading the book from my friend, I had a wonderful calming feeling growing in me. This book, with very simple, honest, gentle writing, drew me in more and more from page to page. Many lights lit up on the way and there was a message coming through which is simple and directly connected to our daily lives. That vision, if we all take it on, could get a lot of light into the dark. It could shift the axis back again. You can order it http://www.intheeyesofanahita.com, or on the Amazon.com website, the title is: In the Eyes of Anahita, an adventure in search of humanity, by Hugo Bonjean. My god, I never thought it would ever come to that - me recommending reading to you, instead of telling you to have your own first hand experiences. But truly, the book was a delightful prelude to get into Christmas spirit and to reflect on my life, and the shift, which is happening, mainly by the decision to sell the 15-acre Atlin Centre property and to paint again. If you are interested you can visit the special website which I will list in various places (http://www.atlinart.com/propertyforsale). If you find the buyer I will send you $10,000. And if any of you want to still experience an Atlin Art Workshop or a Wilderness Adventure, or you want to return once more before it ends, there is still an opportunity to come. For summer 2005 the Workshops and Retreats are guaranteed. But as they are already half enrolled, register at the website soon (http://www.atlinart.com), should you decide to come. Most certainly the workshops will also run in summer 2006, as it will take awhile till the right buyer comes. Above all, after 21 years Atlin Centre, lets make the last years the very best ones. To me it's not so important how I start, but it is important how I finish. For information on the Teresa Island Quest, on March 19, please visit http://www.atlinskiclub.org My house on the hill I keep for a few more years. I need the mountains, the lake and the mystery the land has as it is - the catalyst to move on to my next "higher mountain". The country up here is mystic, serene, untouched, majestic. Its creatures have never had their spirit broken. Here is the truth of the UNIVERSAL FORCE. I want to live closer to its calling. Here, I feel, is the catalyst for my inspiration. Within this grandeur I can draw the perspective to shape my core. Here I feel the deep absences of vanished people and my own gathered efforts to understand myself, my place, and my history. I also have a hunger for journeys on which I shape the images for my paintings, on journeys into the silences of the mountains - from white landscapes to reflections by the intimate fireside. This is the land of the northern lights. They are my constant companions through winter nights. Most of the time I take them for granted. But two nights ago there was a spectacular display more explosive than fire works, covering the whole sky. More beautiful than anything I have seen before - brilliant ribbons, golden balls, shimmering curtains of rose and green. It was a spectacle that commanded my whole attention. The First Nations people say that the aurora lights the trail to heaven. That moment was for me a magical invitation to think of the other worldly journeys which some of my friends and family have already taken. Looking up from the silent winter night, I felt a quiet, peaceful motion coming down to me. I stared at the remaining darkness on the land. The town twinkled below as if nothing was happening. And last night winter finally came! During the night it snowed one foot of powder - it's ecstasy! The Atlin winter landscape is pristine. Hiking through a winter forest is one of my favorite outdoors activities. On Christmas evening I will walk into the winter forest and put candles on trees for the people who enriched my life during the year. For each one the suitable tree. Will I have enough candles? Will there be enough trees? I will be thinking of many of you and may your candle, light brightly on a dark night. My best wishes for the Holidays, and a very healthy creative year for all your adventures. Your friend, Gernot P.S.:" I have no special gift. I am only passionately curious". Albert Einstein. |
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