The Artist at Work

By Casey Cantrell
Special to Eyes On Wise

At Stephen Wise Temple, art is everywhere. Even, sometimes, in the shadows.

You’ve likely seen them around campus: silhouetted figures of faculty, parents, staff, and clergy, looming from banners. Or maybe you first came across the evocative black-and-white images in the draft of Wise’s new machzor from the High Holy Days. Or perhaps you watched the artist himself, gray hair pulled back into a short ponytail, painting on a large canvas during the last Rosh Hashanah service and wondered, Who is this person, and why is he painting right now?

His name is Mario M. Muller, and for the past five years he has served as Wise’s artist-in-residence. And the reason he paints?

It’s simple—he doesn’t have a choice.

“I’m convinced that I’m kind of like a vessel,” says Muller. “The art flows through me, and I have a responsibility to put it to paper.”

For more than three decades, Muller has done just that, producing dozens of series that explore the enigmatic relationship between light and shadow, the seen and the unseen. To describe his fascination with this subject as obsessive would be an understatement.

“I’ve spent my entire artist career working in silhouettes,” he says. “Light is defined by dark. Without light and darkness, the world doesn’t take shape.”

“I’m convinced that I’m kind of like a vessel,” says Muller. “The art flows through me, and I have a responsibility to put it to paper.”

Even as his art has evolved, Muller, now 56, still brims with the energy and exuberance of a fledgling artist. Before setting up shop at Wise, he lived in New York City, where he grew up surrounded by towering buildings and the sounds of Yiddish. While there, he fell in love with the concept of silhouettes—the anonymous figure walking down a sidewalk, the eclipsed cityscape. When he moved to Los Angeles to be with his then-fiancée Thea in 2005—she “kind of imported me,” he jokes—his interests turned to Southern California’s “sometimes aggressive” coexistence of nature and urbanity.

“It’s form over feature,” he says, describing his work while sitting in his studio on campus. Although details like a face, a building façade, or a flower might be obscured, “I can make you think of the full image. It’s a collaboration of your eyes and the image, and you’re making it complete.”

At this, he stands up, stamps his feet, and throws his arms up. “In the world of art,” he says, “that’s the touchdown.”

The idea of starting an artist-in-residence program first began gestating six years ago, while Muller was dropping off his son at Wise School. He ran into then-Head of School Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback and struck up a conversation, during which Muller described his artistic “condition.”

“I suffer from what I call aesthetic arrest,” he says. “It’s when you come in contact with something of such beauty, poise, and grace, you get short of breath, you tremble, you get goosebumps.”

In response, Rabbi Yoshi pulled out a pencil and notecard and wrote down a Jewish blessing: Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha-olam she’kakha lo b’olamo—the “Blessing for Beauty.” To this day, Muller still carries the notecard in his wallet.

About a year later, Muller approached Rabbi Yoshi again, this time with a question: What did he think about setting up a space for Muller to work on campus?

Rabbi Yoshi said he would think about it.

“My art has been absorbed into the fabric of the community,” he says. “I couldn’t be prouder.”

“For anybody else, that would’ve been it,” says Muller. But two hours later, he got a call from Rabbi Yoshi. The answer? An emphatic yes.

For Rabbi Yoshi, Muller was the perfect fit. “I’m a huge fan of Mario’s work, and also of Mario as a human being,” he says. “There are beautiful souls that create beautiful things, and when we feel that, we should express our gratitude. Creativity is a huge part of our Wise Way Forward—it’s incredibly important to me.”

Muller has not disappointed, producing hundreds of artworks, some of which are featured around the campus, and he plans to add up to 60 images to the batch of illustrations he’s already created for the final version of the Wise machzor. He also leads “Museums with Mario,” tours of local art museums.

But most of all, Muller is humbled by the opportunity that Wise has given him.

“My art has been absorbed into the fabric of the community,” he says. “I couldn’t be prouder.”