Every artist at some point contemplates the source and purpose of creativity. For some this becomes an

obsession, for others it can be a debilitating distraction. There are a select few for whom this search

becomes a joyous journey that they invite others to join. Robert Mueller has been physically and

metaphorically on this journey his entire life. As a wilderness adventurer and educator for more than 40

years, Mueller has invited countless young artists to question and to search. He has encouraged his

students to bear witness to the world around them, to be curious so that they may one day find their

own voice. His lectures, his critiques, his work, and his honest, open, and humble questioning of his

own life, his practice as an artist, and ancient spiritual traditions were a living example of how curiosity

and a willingness to learn could create a rich and impactful life in the arts.

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Mueller has embraced the Buddhist idea that - the soul doesn’t go it alone. It is an understanding that we

are interconnected to all things in the natural world, a oneness that prevents true isolation. He believes

that our connections to nature and to one another are strengthened through cooperation and

collaboration. It is a never-ending cycle of learning from one another and from the world around us.

Mueller has had a long connection to collaboration, both as a dancer & choreographer in his earlier years

and as a collaborative master printer and educator later in life. It was through these experiences that

Mueller came to value collaboration as an integral part of art making, instilling these values in students,

printers, and fellow artists.

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Mueller is as much a storyteller as a visual artist. The book form, reading a work, became increasingly

more important to Mueller over the years. In many ways it reflects his time as a choreographer where

the work unfolds and evolves over time. How we move towards, around, and through space has meaning.

What we touch and what we restrain from touching builds the narrative facts of our lives. The definition

of time, as defined by Oxford, lends particular insight into the making and viewing of Mueller’s work:

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               Time- the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future

                        regarded as a whole.

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Pilgrims in a Fable highlights the artist’s journey and the legacy of a teacher. Mueller understood that a life

in the arts mirrored the dedication of a pilgrim in search of sacred places, knowing you won’t return the

same. He knew that through art we are never alone and that the legacy an artist is most responsible for

leaving is an invitation for future generations to look, listen, see, hear, and question. Curiosity is how

the journey begins. It’s how art keeps us all going.

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Phil Sanders

Curator