Visiting Executive-in-Residence Professor Willie Baronet has been buying and collecting signs made by homeless people for the past 20 years. While this started off as a hobby, he now uses his purchases as artwork to “talk about the concept of home”.
Baronet owned his own advertising firm for 16 years before selling it in 2006, when he decided to go to graduate school at UTD for an MFA in arts and technology. In 2009, he had his first solo art show featuring the signs he purchased from the homeless at Hal Samples Gallery in Deep Ellum.
“It felt like I was coming home,” he says. “For me, art—artistic expression and creativity—that’s where I’ve always felt safe.”
Baronet currently teaches several classes for the Temerlin Advertising Institute, including Introduction to Creativity, Word & Image and Portfolio. He encourages his students to discover their own hobbies and creative passions.
To read the full article and learn more about Baronet’s artistic adventure, please visit:
http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Magazine/2013/September/Signs_of_the_Homeless.aspx
