Michael Hepher: The Informal Path

At one of Michael Hepher’s printmaking workshops, attendees learn the craft of linocut printing.

Michael Hepher

I’m Michael Hepher, a full-time artist, printmaker and writer living and working in Fernie. Articulate is committed to sharing artistic voices from across the Columbia Basin, and I’m one of the lucky people who has been invited to contribute my thoughts every other month. I’ll be sharing what’s on my artsy mind, give you glimpses into life as a rural artist, and talk about what’s going on in the cultural scene in the East Kootenay. Thanks for reading!

If I want to become a carpenter, there’s a clear route laid out for me.

I enter a trade school and learn the basics under the tutelage of a skilled professional. Once I understand the basics, I apprentice on a job site where I would start by hauling offcuts, watching carefully and embracing every opportunity to learn from the seasoned veteran tasked with turning me into a Red Seal craftsperson. If, at long last, I was given the thumbs-up by my trade guild, I might work as a carpenter for years before finally realizing I had the skills to start building my own furniture.

This is how craftspeople have been trained for generations: a deliberate and graduated path that ensures technical proficiency before allowing any personal expression—but that’s not how it works in the arts.

Finding consistent data about formal education in the arts is difficult because the variety of mediums, types of programs, and reporting varies widely. In a general sense, less than half of professional artists have a Bachelor of Fine Arts, with some estimates being as low as 23 per cent. Here in the Columbia Basin, a report found that 38 per cent of artists in the region have at least an undergraduate degree, but it’s not known how many of those degrees were focused on art. That means most artists have come into the field laterally and found their own way along the informal path, myself included.

In my early life, I laid a pretty solid foundation of rudiments, with art class being non-negotiable in my electives through junior and senior high. There, I was exposed to basic colour theory, gesture drawing, perspective and composition before my life diverged and took me in a different direction for a while.

As I found my way back into full-time creative work and started to mature as an artist, I realized that I wasn’t alone in stepping sideways out of another career. Many of us are trying to shift into something more fulfilling, and today that’s easier than ever; we have increased access to craft markets, art co-operatives and online sales streams.

I go to every art opening…
I get up close to their work and I imagine how they put it all together.

The goal is always to take steps forward, but many artists have not had the opportunity to learn the foundational technical skills needed to hit the ground running with high-level art. How do we grow? Having the right tools can keep us from getting lost along the way. To draw a hiking metaphor, a good pair of boots and a compass can help us get to our destination much quicker than flip-flops and an out-of-date map.

In my case, my informal path helps me carry the passion for creating into my practice, but as I encounter the technical deficits I’ve had to go out of my way to reinforce my skills in less traditional ways. I attend the life-drawing nights at the Arts Station in Fernie to practise the core skills of seeing and drawing. In spring 2025 I spent a week in Clifford, Ontario, mentoring with a world-class wood engraver. I go to every art opening, and talk to as many artists as I can and ask them about their process. I get up close to their work and I imagine how they put it all together. I attend a peer-feedback night to grow through crowd-sourced critique. I also find teaching others to be the best way to force myself to solidify my own knowledge. If you have a unique skill, running a workshop will certainly reinforce that learning in your own work.

Even the most intuitive self-taught artists sometimes need to shore up their efforts with knowledge to maximize their natural talent. Your Basin arts council is a good place to start; if you don’t know which one covers your area, you can find that info here.

The informal path can be great for preserving passion and freshness in our work, but—as with many things in life-the key is balance. When we can balance intuition with education, or experimentation with understanding, we can cut a shorter path towards our artistic ideas.

To find more about me (Michael Hepher), check out the links below. I’d love to hear from you!