Steve Prince: Bird in Hand

Steve Prince with

          Some artists combine their creativity with their concern over community issues.  One example is Steve Prince, MFA ’95, a widely shown, award-winning artist who currently teaches at Montgomery College in Germantown, MD.  He recently produced a 9-x-20 foot graphite on paper work that was shown in ArtPrize, Grand Rapids, that should resonate with Michiganians.  It took Prince 22 days to finish “Bird in Hand:  Second Line for Michigan,” uses the funerary dirge of his native New Orleans as a metaphor for the state’s economic decline.  “I wanted something that was on a life scale,” he explains.  “I used the transformative, cathartic power of the Dirge to offer a space where Michiganders can effectively mourn the loss of jobs, industry, and financial security.  I inverted the traditional Jazz funeral by processing away from the gravesite.  The four horsemen carry a 1950s Chevy Coupe.”  Steve, who is represented by the Eyekons Gallery in Grand Rapids, explains that the work’s title describes Michigan, the upper peninsula being the bird.  “In New Orleans funerals, often a dove is released to symbolize a person entering the next life,” he explains.  “In the painting the handkerchief flutters like a dove in the context of a dirge.”  Steve came to MSU to follow his mentor, the late art professor John Scott.  “My first year was tough,” recalls Steve.  “I was overwhelmed by the scale of the campus, and then it was freezing cold.  But I adjusted well afterwards.”  As a student, he co-founded a student group called Monumental Discoveries.  “Linda Stanford was our chairperson and she helped us get organized,” he notes.  “We invited seasoned artists to come to campus and intermingle with students.  We brought many diverse voices to campus.”

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