| A Creative Life

Spend a week with legendary illustrator, photographer, and filmmaker Matt Mahurin, exploring your life as a professional artist while being inspired to discover a unique and marketable vision of your art.

This workshop will offer the opportunity to explore life as a professional artist with an illustrator, photographer, and filmmaker who has worked at the highest levels for forty years. Matt Mahurin has directed videos for U2, Sting, Metallica, Tom Waits, Tracy Chapman, Lou Reed, David Byrne, and Joni Mitchell. Photo essays on the Texas Prison System, abortion clinics, the homeless, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Belfast. Published four books of photographs and has work in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His films have played at the Sundance Film Festival and the Museum of Modern Art.

This workshop is for

Photographers, filmmakers, and digital artists determined to explore their purpose with passion.

The goal of the workshop

Is to inspire students to discover a unique and marketable vision of their art through demonstrations, discussions, and an assignment.

Students will leave the workshop with

A greater sense of practical knowledge and creative possibilities for their careers.

Class Sessions

Matt will tell thrilling, challenging, funny, scary, and lucrative stories through sharing professional assignments and personal projects. He will use photography, Photoshop, and Procreate to take an image from concept to completion.

The Assignment

A self-portrait that captures Your Creative Life.

• Share a brief description of Your Creative Life with the class. What are your past accomplishments and your future goals? What makes you unique as a creative being?
• Matt will demonstrate the conceptual sketch process in exploring your imagination to reflect Your Creative Life.
• Your self-portrait sketch will be presented to the group for review.
• Bring your self-portrait to a finished image using photography, digital art, or filmmaking.

Students should bring their own laptops.

Student Testimonials

“Matt Mahurin has a way about him. A poet with a paintbrush, a photographer with a visionary focus. Whether still camera, video camera, traditional or digital art, he creates work that is hypnotic and charged with electricity. When you meet him in person it does not take long to realize that he is the real deal. I took a workshop with Matt Mahurin that left my mind racing with new ideas and possibilities. It was truly a transformative experience. He said things that I needed to hear and told stories I will never forget. One of the best things I’ve ever done for myself as an artist.” — John Dinser

“Infinitely inspired and inspiring, I feel so fortunate to have been able to spend a few days learning about his process—without question, the most important teacher of my life.” — Evan Hurd

“Matt Mahurin is an extraordinary talent, a sweet man and a generous teacher. He gave us the challenge of fulfilling an assignment that he was commissioned to do so we could experience his thought process and his technique. He is a rare bird and a treat to meet. Don’t miss the opportunity.” — Amy Arbus

“Making the decision to work with Matt will change your creative life. Not doing so, you’ll be missing the opportunity to work with one of the best creative minds working today. A true artist, teacher, and creative visionary. As the Director of the Art Kane Photographic Workshop, I brought Matt in for a workshop in film and photography, it was the best workshop that year. His hands-on approach was exceptional. Downright amazzzzing. The students were spellbound.” — William Deering

All images copyright Matt Mahurin.