Stephen Perkins

The artist talk by Stephen Perkins was interesting as it went through a very wild life with many twists and turns. Most specifically his art carrier was a constant ramble between different mediums until around half way through his life. At first he did "traditional art" such as painting and drawing but found that those things may not have really been for him. After graduating college he got a job as an art therapist growing his art skills while helping others in need and leaving a impact on the world. After a while he moved on to photography where he photographed the many protests that were happening at the time to bring awareness to the situation. After his interest in photography, he got into printing art magazines and books which gathered art works from all around to share with the world. And then after that he began creating his works of art which focused on "words" to represent something happening in the world that Stephen wants to bring awareness to. He now has installations in museums, his house, and in random places all over the world. He places little note cards with a word or two which relates to the current political issue with Donald Trump. It becomes clear that he has tried many things and moved on. But I noticed a commonality that he likes to use art as a tool to help spread a global message in every part of life. From magazines to small tricky notes on top a urinal. Art is a foundation for which he expresses his words. This contrast something that McLuhan had in his book which say "The discovery of the alphabet will create forgetfulness I the learners souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust the external written characters and not remember themselves" (113). Although I believe some part of this may be true I feel like Stephens works uses words in a way to make readers questions what is written and make their own decisions. Stephens note cards for example only has a few words with very little context. In this case the viewer will need to questions how it fits into the real world. Some may read it differently than others but that is ok. Stephen had left an impact on the viewer with this own history and experiences. I think this work of art is interesting as like talked about in class, art does not only have to be what is "traditionally" art. Things liked words, videos, a collection of work, and be used as "art" to create a bigger picure of what the work is about. This unconventional different style makes art interesting.