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© 2005 VINCENT STEPHENS |
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Vincent Stephens Biography |
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Vincent
was born sometime in the middle of the last century in a small town in
eastern North Carolina. He shan't bore you with such cliches which evoke
nostalgia for some imagined simpler time, which of course, it was not.
Suffice it to say that he had a normal enough childhood for a kid born
into a military family during a time of sweeping changes, social,
technological and everything in between.
For as long as he can
remember he has been drawing. He was told that when he was four
years old, he scrawled something he saw on the television onto the
coffee table in the living room, prompting his parents to put him
into school. By his reckoning, he attended 11 different schools
before graduating high school.
With all that moving
around, he tended be something of a loner. Rather than become some
kind of sociopath, he reads a lot . Everything from Greek and Norse
mythology to the modern mythology of comic books. He was fascinated
by stories of larger-than-life figures doing heroic deeds, though
there wasn't a lot which reflected his own particular cultural
perspective. Hence, he started to create visions of the fantastic
with a "flavor", be the setting some far-flung future or some past
of the imagination.
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He continued to draw
and paint and learn, taking the usual art classes and winning such
recognition and awards that a bright talented kid might. He had a
good teacher or two along the way. Thanks, Mrs. Staffon, for
believing in him... Incidentally, he still has the photocollage he
did as a class assignment back in 1969.
As fate would have it,
he went off into the world, spending a time at Macalester College.
Minnesota didn't seem such a bad place. He spent the next several
years there, working a "real" job or two, before a friend got him to
volunteer at a community center in St. Paul. At the Inner City Youth
League , he was at various times artist-in-residence, gallery
curator, instructor and heaven only knows what else. He believes the
greatest reward was showing kids (nowadays they'd be called "at
risk") that they could do something creative and lasting in spite of
having been told that they didn't have what it took by the regular
school authority types. |
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Since leaving the
military, he has been mainly working on such projects as tickle his
fancy at any given time between doing what it takes to keep body and
soul together. Most of his pieces are within the realm of sci-fi/fantasy,
though he can go where the spirit takes him. Call him artist,
illustrator or whatever. The label is unimportant. What matters to
him is that the work gets done. And that people appreciate what he
does. |
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