Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Prentice.
Hi Steve, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I felt more confident communicating through my art than any other form of communication throughout most of my childhood. It was not until I was in college that I began to gain confidence in my voice and my writing when an English Professor pushed me well beyond what I thought I was ever capable of. He zeroed in on me early in the semester critiquing my work harshly. He criticized me for not pushing myself far enough. I poured my heart and soul into the last paper, sure that I was going to fail the class but determined to go down fighting. He came to the last class of the semester and passed out a copy of my paper to everyone in the class. I braced myself certain that he decided he was going to go out with one last shot at me. When he returned to the front of the class, he said, “This is how you write a story.” I still have nightmares about his shiny cowboy boots, but I am forever in his debt for pushing me well beyond what I thought I could do. That experience also pushed me artistically to be bolder in my approach to photography and art. I took every class I could find in photography and the visual arts. I continued to write, mostly poetry until I learned about Nation Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which occurs every November. It is a yearly writer’s challenge to write a minimum of 50,000 words in the month of November. I spent nine months researching Native American mythology and creating an outline for what would eventually become my first novel, “Seventh Generation.” I ended up completing my 50,000+ words in November. It took nearly a year to edit to the point I felt like I was ready to start submitting to publishers. I was fortunate enough to find a publisher willing to take it on and just before my publication date, COVID hit our world hard and my publishing date got pushed back almost a year and a half. When the day finally did come, I remember holding my book in my hands for the first time. I was overwhelmed with emotions.
I currently have two books in editing. The first is a mystery novel in which I weave some of the memories of my last 34 years in social work. The second is a historical novel about Indian Boarding Schools.
I am also currently working on a series of watercolor paintings of the Uintah Mountains and the Mirror Lake Highway where I spent much of my childhood. I have watched it slowly disappear and want to preserve its beauty the best I can before it is gone forever.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have dyslexia, as well as a severe reading and math disorder. I remember a lot of both educational and medical tests, in my first two years of elementary school. I remember sitting in a meeting with my teacher, the special education teacher, the principal, and my parents. I recall my teacher carefully explaining to my parents that I had severe learning disabilities. They told us I would not be able to make it beyond the sixth grade and that a school for kids with disabilities was the best option. It was the first, and one of the few times I saw my father get angry. His voice shook as he tried to keep calm. He told them that they were wrong about what I was capable of. He told them that he would under no circumstances allow me to be placed outside the regular school system. I stayed in my regular class and had special education for an hour every day. I was quiet and kind of odd which made me a target for a lot of bullies. I learned to try to make myself small, small enough to disappear. The school continued to pressure my parents to change their minds, but my father’s determination never wavered.
I learned little tricks to get around not being able to read including looking at the letters on the bathroom door to see which one was shorter or peeking inside just enough to see what color the tile was. I remained very shy and preferred to communicate through my drawings filling page after page full of drawings. My parents always made sure I had plenty of paper and ways to draw. After sixth grade, I decided I was tired of people looking at me like I was broken and refused to do special education classes or even allow my parents to tell anyone about my disabilities.
I managed to struggle through and graduate high school. I think I graduated more out of a desire to prove people wrong than anything else. When I left high school, I had no intention of attending college and went straight to working full-time in a warehouse. It didn’t take long before I became restless, so I signed up at the Salt Lake Community College, unsure what I wanted to do. I took a variety of classes and ended up in a psychology class.
While not an honor roll student my grades did continue to improve as I worked my way through the community college. I transferred to the University of Utah and started working on my bachelor’s in Sociology, where my grades continued to improve along with my confidence.
I ended up completing my bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in social work. I have spent the last 34 years working in my field determined to help others to not fall between the cracks. I have seen and heard much pain over the years. My art and writing give me the space to try to transform that pain into beauty and way to try to understand our world.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My first novel, “Seventh Generation” is about a young Native American boy who is coming to terms with the death of his mother and his place in an ancient Cherokee prophecy. I spent almost a year researching mythology from several Native American tribes and include them in the novel with references to the name of the mythology and the tribe it originated from. I also do visual arts which has included various mediums including mixed media, found art, upcycled art, oil, acrylic and most recently watercolor paintings. Most of my recent artwork has been watercolors focused on the Uintah mountains and the Mirror Lake Highway. I am also working on editing my second book which is a mystery novel that explores personal trauma. My work has been shown in galleries in New York City and Utah. I have also sold to private collectors throughout the world.
I also enjoy doing art that can be placed in public places. My public projects have included a project called “fallen leaves.” I created 1,640 unique clay leaves. Each leaf represented one child that is killed every year at the hands of their abusers. After completing the leaves, I spent the month of April (National Child Abuse Awareness month) spreading the leaves throughout the Salt Lake Valley with a small notecard explaining the project. I received messages from some survivors that shared their stories of abuse and the art they had created. I also did a project where I made a small dog sculpture out of metal building materials which I placed down on the corner of 9th and 9th. Over the course of the next several weeks, the neighborhood adopted that little dog and brought it food and water. It made me so happy to see the neighborhood taking ownership of the work.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
I got two great pieces of advice early on in my photography and writing. The first was from my photography professor, Roger Newbold. He told me, “Learn and master the rules; then you can break them smartly. The second was from former Poet Laureate Billy Collins, “Don’t worry so much about other writer’s processes are or opinions of what writing should be. Get writing.”
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @prentice.striks
- Facebook: @steve.prentice.75
- Twitter: @StevePrentice7
Image Credits
Karen Shaw for the main photo
Other photos by Steve Prentice
