Hip-Hop Spirit Inspires Teen Artist's Prize-Winning Work

Max Perkins is equal parts visual artist and hip-hop music aficionado.

He’s also very talented, as evidenced last week when his painting Spittin Flow, a luminescent picture of a rapper in action, won him a $1,250 third-place prize in the Tamima Al-Awar art scholarship competition.

Perkins, an 18-year-old senior at Moorpark High School, is as sharp as a tack when it comes to the history of hip-hop. His interest, however, is not just in the music, but the vibes that surround it.

“It’s not just hip-hop, it’s a whole culture,” he said.

For Perkins, hip-hop conveys more than just rhymes about jewelry and babes. Hip-hop, he insists, is about attitude—pushing boundaries, provoking thought.

“Hip-hop is about things I can relate to,” he said. “Like KRS-One, who talks about controversial issues. He’s one of the few that discuss things that actually mean something.”

Perkins first became interested in art through his father, who is also an artist. The style that intrigued him initially was comic book art.

“My dad brought home this book called How to Draw the Marvel Way,” he said. “That’s when I decided I wanted to draw characters.”

Perkins admits that, since those early days browsing through Marvel illustrations, he has gone through several stages of styles.

“For a long time I wanted to be a comic book artist. Then it turned into a graffiti artist, and during that phase it made me get really serious about doing art. My notebook—I don’t think there’s a page without a doodle on it,” he said.

Perkins also cited the Brandywine artists and Dean Cornwell, a famous U.S. illustrator from the early and mid-20th century, as major influences in his work.

Then there’s the significant impact of graffiti art. Graffiti, not as in random property destruction (which he does not support), but as in boldness and raw human emotion.

“Graffiti is purely expression,” Perkins said. “You’re expressing purely an attitude with your letters. Graffiti is something you can do to let off steam and convey what you’re feeling that day.”

In the end, however, he has discovered his own brand of painting.

“I’ve gone through several different ways of painting and I’ve found my own style, and usually it’s a variety of techniques.”

His future at this point is still unfolding. Perkins hopes to do an apprenticeship with another artist and perhaps go to an art college. For now, however, he continues to search for his own voice and paint with conviction.

“Art is being real with yourself,” he said. “If you’re not real with yourself, you can’t expect to be real with anybody else.”

Asked about what art means to him, he draws on another visual experience to get his point across.

“If you were at a train station and you were standing on that yellow line when the train is passing, it’s breathtaking seeing something come to life.”

The Tamima Al-Awar art scholarships, presented annually to artists who are high school seniors, are sponsored by two Ventura County arts organizations, Focus on the Masters and the Ventura County Arts Council. The awards for the nine scholarship winners were presented at a reception Thursday at the Ventura County Government Center.

Perkins’ prize-winning painting, now on display at the Government Center, is part of the current Ventura County Arts Council exhibition titled "Expressions of Our Youth," which features the art of all 24 Ventura County students who entered the competition. The exhibit will be on display through April 12.