Artist Statement

Michael Cichon is The Teaman, a Montreal-based artist: writer, poet, and photographer. Mr. Cichon’s childhood was one of poverty, hand-me-downs, and living off donations. These formative years fostered in him a unique understanding and empathy for those who stand outside the frame. From that early age, he was encouraged to participate in acting and Polish folk dancing, both instrumental in shaping his conceptual world of subjects and ideas that reside outside of what is considered socially acceptable.

Later, his academic training in Liberal Arts and Russian Studies helped further inspire him and his philosophical and literary perspectives. Of all the influences that helped to develop his views, it was discussions with his Polish-Ukrainian grandmother, drinking tea and listening to her talk about her arduous past, that most shaped his personal relationship to time and space. Mr. Cichon left Toronto in 1996 to teach English in Busan, a large port city in South Korea. Instantly isolated from the familiar, he became acutely aware of his existential tourist consciousness, being both “apart” and “a part” of society. Here, he was introduced to Taoist philosophy and the phrase “Live Like Water,” something that resonated with his Eastern European family’s history of displacement and rootlessness. The phrase continues to guide his artistic and business endeavors.