Artist Michael Bernard Stevenson Jr.

Imagination Academy is an artist project which takes the form of an institution that facilitates events and activities to cultivate and expand young minds. As part of this larger umbrella project I often work with young people to build their culinary skills. For the 2018 Art and Social Practice Assembly Conference in Portland Oregon I conceived of Real Food, Faux Truck, Food Truck (RFFTFT) in an intergenerational collaboration with young artists Riley and Beck Jacobsen. RFFTFT is a pop-up street food experience co-managed by mixed race young people and myself that serves real food out of a masonite food truck facade. At Assembly we served pancakes with an option of bacon and greens to 40 people. Later RFFTFT was re-deployed with Beatrice Red Start Fletcher serving fried tofu and broccoli at the 2018 Art Department Open House. Each iteration of the project posies my youth collaborators as co-owners of the truck. They decide the menu, the prices, and perform quality control. RFFTFT offers youth an opportunity to get some real life experience managing a for profit(ish) business that requires them to make decisions on the fly while interacting with a primarily adult clientele. RFFTFT marries my love of food with a practice where I am learning from the ideas and inspirations shared by youth collaborators and add to that all my skills, abilities, and intentions towards the growth of their imagination and development of their self confidence.

Elijah is a young person with whom I connected with in September 2017 through King School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA) Mentorship Program at King Elementary School.

Together we explore ideas and activities that are of common interest to us both. Taking turns leading the explorations so that each of us is coming away with new skills and understanding.

Currently we have an exhibition up at KSMoCA of a collaborative project featuring Elijah's drawings in response to prompts, and my interpretation of his drawing of his favorite toy, “Batman Elevator.” 

We also completed a collaborative drawing of a bridge to submit to a juried show at Longview Public Library.

Then we began to explore cooking as a practical skill and artistic medium that can encourage healthy life habits and be shared with others.

And newly we’re working on developing and making a “Power Suit” of Elijah’s design.

2017 - 2019 (Current)

Imagination Academy is an artist project which takes the form of an institution that facilitates events and activities to cultivate and expand young minds. As part of this larger umbrella project I often work with young people who are children of my close friends. Once my friends began to have children I realized this was an audience who well fit my primary creative interests while holding the dualistic positionality of being born to an existing loved one. I began to realize that these little people represent an audience that will age through an awareness of me and my artist practice allowing for a slowly growing potency of the work’s value.

Johannes Tesfahun is the three-year old son of my highschool friend Rahel. He is a collaborator who has the earnest desire to be an astronaut and pilot a rocket ship into space. Our collaboration began the day we met while visiting Seattle in 2018 with an inquiry about his favorite toy which was a spaceship. Together we are collaborating to design and build a space station attached to a volcano for Johannes board and launch into space riding a handmade rocket. This inaugural mission will be recorded and made into a documentary called Johannes Goes to Space.

So far I’ve created and prepared various inspiring drawings, prints, pins, and post cards and sent them to Johannes so that he can begin to imagine how his adventure through space will go!

Tables for Two is a pop-up event featuring a multi-course meal served to tables set for two. Each iteration of Tables for Two is unique, the first being on February 14th, 2013 held in the lobby of the Alfred University art building. Tables for Two Alfred was facilitated in collaboration with Sierra Sparks, Stephanie Joan Arthur (Giera), Elizabeth Cote, Sam Sloan-Wiechert, Erin Hall, Jessie Simmons, Kait Boccardo. Primary collaborator Sierra Sparks and I were excited to leverage our love of food and access to a wealth-spring of local agricultural splendor, with dishes featuring product from some of our favorite community produce and grocery vendors.

The following three iterations of Tables for Two were hosted in personal homes to varying degrees of complexity. Tables for Two has interestingly served as the precedence to my entire socially engaged practice, with an emphasis on all the work I do using food, and gathering around it, as a medium. Between the four iterations I’ve served communities in 4 states, in public and private spaces, and courses have ranged from surf, turf, and garden grown. The project remains my most frequently reproduced artwork to date, and promises future iterations as time goes on. If you’re looking for something fun to do on Valentines day or for any other time with single, or multiple, table settings  for two, book me a flight and you’ve got a personal chef ready, willing, and able!

Photo Credit - Devin Henry

Tables for Two is a pop-up event featuring a multi-course meal served to tables set for two. Each iteration of Tables for Two is unique, the first being on February 14th, 2013 held in the lobby of the Alfred University art building. The following three iterations of Tables for Two were hosted in personal homes to varying degrees of complexity.

Tables for Two, Emma and Ray, happened on Valentines Day Belated in 2018 and produced a bit of a revelation in my artist practice involving food. The event occurred in the home of Emma and Ray Colburn, elucidating the rich context of the social realities surrounding the meal. I prepared a four course vegan meal that would leave mom feeling like her family was being nourished in accordance with their dietary needs and desires while simultaneously pleasing the eyes and palette of a 5 year old. While I thought the panache was in the dinosaur shaped pasta and cookie cut tofu, it was really in the holding of space for a mother to truly enjoy an evening with her son unburdened by the labor of preparing dinner. Bath time, a full belly, and a story before bed, oh what a night!

Tables for Two has interestingly served as the precedence to my entire socially engaged practice, with an emphasis on all the work I do using food, and gathering around it, as a medium. Between the four iterations I’ve served communities in 4 states, in public and private spaces, and courses have ranged from surf, turf, and garden grown. The project remains my most frequently reproduced artwork to date, and promises future iterations as time goes on. If you’re looking for something fun to do on Valentines day or for any other time with single, or multiple, table settings for two, book me a flight and you’ve got a personal chef ready, willing, and able!

The second iteration of Tables for Two occurred in the home of Amy Lovett and John Messer in Inverness Florida on February 14th, 2015. Reservations were taken in advance of the event and people arrived the evening of during their reservation time. The dinner menu consisted of four courses featuring fare sourced from local vendors.

The event was co-facilitated with Amy, John, their children Madison, Riley, Blakely and Turner, Stephanie Joan Arthur (Giera), and the members of the larger Hernando County Community.

Tables for Two is a pop-up event featuring a multi-course meal served to tables set for two. Each iteration of Tables for Two is unique, the first being on February 14th, 2013 held in the lobby of the Alfred University art building. Tables for Two Alfred was facilitated in collaboration with Sierra Sparks, Stephanie Joan Arthur (Giera), Elizabeth Cote, Sam Sloan-Wiechert, Erin Hall, Jessie Simmons, and Kait Boccardo. Primary collaborator Sierra Sparks and I were excited to leverage our love of food and access to a wealth-spring of local agricultural splendor, with dishes featuring product from some of our favorite community produce and grocery vendors. The following three iterations of Tables for Two were hosted in personal homes to varying degrees of complexity.

The most recent iteration of Tables for Two is easily the most casual of the four happening in friends Phil and Ziggy’s Austin home later in 2018. The meal was only two courses, tofu tikka masala and a scoop of ice cream topped off with a bit of on the fly fruit compote. Also the least laborious iteration, Tables for Two Austin was an example of how the format can occur within a wide range between extravagant and highly produced or humble and nourishing. However every iteration of Tables for Two remains a memorable event for those who enjoyed an intimate meal with their friend, partner, or loved one.

Tables for Two has interestingly served as the precedence to my entire socially engaged practice, with an emphasis on all the work I do using food, and gathering around it, as a medium. Between the four iterations I’ve served communities in 4 states, in public and private spaces, and courses have ranged from surf, turf, and garden grown. The project remains my most frequently reproduced artwork to date, and promises future iterations as time goes on. If you’re looking for something fun to do on Valentines day or for any other time with single, or multiple, table settings  for two, book me a flight and you’ve got a personal chef ready, willing, and able!

Belated Birthday is an artist project that happens within the month October sometime after my birthday which is on the 3rd. The precedence for Belated Birthday is informed by the birthdays that I've thrown myself while I was an adult living in the DC Metro area by making the traditional meals of my family heritage and sharing them with friends.The impetus behind this activity is to draw together the people I care about and provide for them. Providing for others is an activity in which I hold in high regard, and my birthday is the perfect time to summon those important to me together for the purposes of relaxation and enjoyment. At this gathering, once we’ve sat down to eat, guests are prompted to share about an instance where they experienced a mixing of cultures in a round robin story share.

The first installment of this ongoing practice too place in October 2017 and involved preparing a subversion of my grandmother’s traditional meatballs and eggplant gravy for the PSU Art and Social Practice cohort at the time. The meal was prepared in the home of and in collaboration with Shoshana Gugenheim Kedem and family. The family keeps a Kosher Kitchen, which required an alteration to the traditional recipes including the omission entirely of dairy, and the requirement that the meat used be Kosher.

In addition to specific guidelines regarding the ingredients, we also had to Kosher the kitchen utensils and cookware. This process involves running boiling water over each instrument and container. Once this process has been done we created a "Meat Kitchen," which allowed for the preparation of the meal.

While cooking the meal I taught Shoshana's children about a tradition of my own called "Stealing a Meatball." Often conducted by a matriarch of the family a process of permitting a young person to have one meatball before dinner while the sauce slowly simmers to perfection. This meatball was their first ever, and later we sang the meatball song that up until Belated Birthday was their only knowledge of meatballs.

The event continued on as guests arrived and the meal was shared with the larger community of the Social Practice program. The intention to bring people together, share a meal, and exchange time and attention together under one roof was satisfied.

Once the meal was done leftover packages were made for members of the community that could not make it to the event. All of the instruments and containers were Koshered once more returning the kitchen to its Kosher state.

Belated Birthday is an artist project that happens within the month October sometime after my birthday which is on the 3rd. The precedence for Belated Birthday is informed by the birthdays that I've thrown myself while I was an adult living in the DC Metro area by making the traditional meals of my family heritage and sharing them with friends. The impetus behind this activity is to draw together the people I care about and provide for them. Providing for others is an activity in which I hold in high regard, and my birthday is the perfect time to summon those important to me together for the purposes of relaxation and enjoyment. At this gathering, once we’ve sat down to eat, guests are prompted to share about an instance where they experienced a mixing of cultures in a round robin story share.

Belated Birthday Too took place in October 2018 and involved preparing an interpretation of my Aunt Elba’s Puerto Rican Ecuadorian Beef Stew for old friends in Alfred New York. The meal was prepared in the home of and in collaboration with Samantha and Andrew Wiechert. During the event Samantha shot footage for the third installment of the documentary series they’ve been shooting of me called Sustenance and Spectacle (Part 1 / Part 2).

I prepared the meal with assistance from Andrew and close friend and former student Cassandra Bull. Together we hosted Jake Manning and Theadora Frost, friends from Portland who just moved to Alfred to begin the painting MFA program. During the meal diners were encouraged to share stories about the mixing of culture.

Andrew shared a story involving spending time with his marine platoon sharing daily meals with an Afghan community while on deployment during wartime with Afghanistan.

During the summer of 2018, I collaborated with Eric John Olsen and the Ethiopian Community in Seattle summer youth program to co-create Between Two Shores. Each week during the summer school program, we worked with the youth to develop interview skills and questions so that they could gather oral histories from community elders. At the end of the summer, we staged a daylong reenactment at Pritchard Island Beach of elders’ childhood stories. Other youth-led activities based on interviews included rock games, team handball, jump rope, an Ethiopian version of duck-duck-goose, swimming, barefoot soccer, and dancing. Members of the Ethiopian Community in Seattle cooked some of the elders’ favorite snacks, like dabo kolo, and we provided other snacks mentioned in the interviews, like organic fruits, candies, and mango juice. Youth illustrated the different snacks and activities uncovered during the oral histories, and Michael and I composed these drawings into large images that we installed in the park to commemorate the stories and re-enactments.

During past interviews with elders on projects address age-segregation in our communities, I learned that intergenerational exchanges are some of the experiences seniors value and miss the most. Between Two Shores responded to this need by using re-enactment as an way to value stories passed between generations, and a way to celebrate the wealth of elders’ lived experiences.

Between Two Shores was made possible with the generous support of Seattle Public Parks, the Office of Arts & Culture, and all the staff and community members at the Ethiopian Community in Seattle.

Imagination Academy is an artist project which takes the form of an institution that facilitates events and activities to cultivate and expand young minds. As part of this larger umbrella project I often work with young people though King School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA).

Magic school is a artist project I did in collaboration with Shawn Creeden where we taught students in Ms. Ellis’ 3rd Grade class how to make wands, write spells, and cast them. First we led them through the enchanted forest to select a wand, and then to magical chest of treasures full of magical talismans. Then at the synthesis lab we assembled their magical wands by binding the two together. Next we gave them each a spell book in which to write their spells. We talked them through identifying what they would think, say, and do to successfully cast their respective spells of choice. At the end we had each of them cast their spell in front of the group who looked on offering them encouragement along the way!

An artist project done in collaboration with Jane Orr and Torri Lynnn Ashford of Thick Air Studios during the Summer of 2018 at Artscape in Baltimore MD. The project consisted of hired community members helping to facilitate bicycle powered can crushing for festival goers. People would toss collected bottles and cans into the machine to be crushed and recycled.

The inspiration for The Department of Beauty and Maintenance was an ad campaign that preached a "new city game" -- tossing litter into a bin and keeping the streets clean. Back in 1974, when it began, the campaign won awards. People thought it was funny and cute. Neighborhoods even held “Trashball” tournaments. The magic of this project was people of all ages, especially very young people, were having fun cleaning up and being ecologically responsible.

On the last day of the the event we bundled up all the crushed cans and shared them with our number one fan!

BEAM LARP is a workshop I offered at, Beam Camp in Strafford NH in July of 2018 in collaboration with Simon Rabatin. Beam Camp was founded to provide young people with exciting experiences in creative problem-solving through working with their hands and actively collaborating with others.

Live Action Role Playing is when participants physically portray characters of fictional or historical design. In BEAM LARP players pursued goals within a fictional dystopian future that they co-created through sharing concerns they had about the world we live in. The fictional universe is represented by a real world setting and participants interact with each other in character while playing through the fantasy universe augmented with cardboard cutouts of the enemies they were facing.

On the first day participants made character’s and shared their concerns for the world as we know it. In between the first and second day I made game mechanisms for each of the items and abilities they designed, as well as a map for the playable universe. On the second and third days of the workshop each participant played through the storyline in the co-created universe.

The result was an epic final battle against a cybernetic dragon that was controlled by the supercomputer that was originally designed by a corrupt government which then developed sentience and turned on human kind. The final blow was struck by Parl, a character that seemed to literally never hit a target throughout the entirety of the game, however on a lucky, double roll with initiative, struck down the fearsome dragon in one mighty flash of a trans-dimensional void that sucked the dragon and super computer into another universe. Never, to be seen, again....

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As guardian to Artist Matoska I have become increasingly interested in creating an environment and set of collaborative parameters that will allow my faithful companion to further explore their artistic interests and creative potential. To this end we’ve spoken with three animal parapsychologists to help develop my understanding of Artist Matoska’s voice.

This is the beginning stages to a longer and deeper collaborative relationship between myself and Artist Matoska.

Stay tuned for more! Keep up to date on Artist Matoska’s Instagram!

And don’t forget to pick up the first 2019 issue of the SoFa Journal which has a transcription of Artist Matoska’s interview with Deborah Erickson, PhD

PlayTime is a project that centers an audience of young people and involves setting up a workshop where young people will be. As young people approach the workshop they see a treasure trove of thrift store toys and become intrigued. Once their attention is captured I engage and share that I will make a custom toy just for them if they fill out a PlayTime order form.

I interpret their inputs on the form, but also closely monitor which toys they are being drawn to. We start a dialogue and pick a few items from the smorgasbord that reflect their interests. I take the selected toys and begin to synthesize a new one by sewing the various selections together. This is quite the amazing event as the young person observes their innermost desires manifested before them.

Once the toy is complete their parent and/or guardian finalizes the transaction with the signing of a contract. There are fields for both the young person and parent/guardian to sign promising to commit to invest time and attention in each other.

Through this practice PlayTime offers young people exposure to the ability to subvert what is accessible and manifest their dreams. As the parent/guardians watch their child interact with me they have the opportunity to see just how easy it is to give their children a portrait of actively engaging, believing, and manifesting their greatest dreams. And finally the contract helps everyone to see the agreements they need to make with each other, and themselves, to have infinite access to this incredibly form of power and prosperity.

Portland Tropical Gardens (PTG) is a project space being created in collaboration with Director Ralph Pugay, Lead Horticulturist Shawn Creeden, Tropical Correspondent Salty Thunder,  and Center For Art and Public Wellness run by Erika Dedini and Rachel Hines. 

PTG is an indoor tropical garden located at Director Park in Portland Oregon. The space features an atmosphere of humidity, warmth, and a forest of tropical flora.

The space is a setting for various programs and events focusing on tropical culture, wellness, sharing of horticultural expertise, and other more nuanced interpretations of essence of PTG.

My role is of Events Coordinator and Historian. The fist event I was responsible for was a popsicle eating contest at the opening. I'm currently working on curating a few lectures, a collaboration between Hawaiian born artists, and various youth oriented programs.

The calendar of events can be found here.

Follow us on Instagram for more details as they develop!

Chosen Family dinner Series is an artist project consisting of weekly dinners for a month on Sunday evenings at Carissa Burkett’s home in the Winter of 2018. The dining party was a reoccurring group of 4 who each week took turns curating the menu as well a prompt to tell a story. The initiating member would share a story related to a theme welcoming others to share stories on a similar theme in a round robin story share.

Rock HOUNDing with Fred is a project centering Fred Tschida as an audience, and myself as a secondary audience. In the research for this project I was sent on a mission to go to various rock shops in Oregon and ask "What does only Oregon have?"

Leading with the inquiry given to me by Fred, I followed up with inquires regarding a favorite rock hounding story and what does only Oregon have in a non geological context.

Going from rock shop to rock shop I discovered that Oregon has various unique geological forms, including its own unique opal. Which, given that opal is my birthstone, I am on a personal mission to find and unearth my own specimen.

I met some interesting characters who had knowledge of various mineralogical phenomena. The research has been presented at the Portland Public Library with the intention continue our research indefinitely.

Once the weather permits, I will be scheduling rock hounding journeys with Fred, and Dusty Rocks! a rockhound from Washington I met at the Portland Convention Center Gem Faire.

The recorded interviews can be found here.

While living in Western New York I began to learn about whole foods from various sources including the farms from which they came. I developed a very close relationship with Jerry of Sunny Cove Farm, a local organic and raw dairy farm. Sometimes we would talk for hours about the precarious legality of the harmless and healthy product coming from his farm. I did a lot of promotion and product design for Sunny Cove Farm, but the one thing I couldn’t do much of was serve the raw milk. Due to state and federal law, in New York the sale of raw milk must be conducted on farm only. Furthermore, the milk could not travel across state lines or be used to create any product for consumption outside the home. In a brazen disregard for the laws, I began to prepare and share my homemade ice creams made using raw milk. Each event would occur with the knowledge that the product being served was illegal and therefore may be “unsafe” for consumption. Each iteration of this project was met with happy faces, delighted bellies and a rich discourse on food security and freedom. *No individuals were made sick by serving this illegal substance*

Antisocial media is an ongoing project that involves writing personal letters to friends and love ones. Once I've written the letter I document it and send it off. I take the documentation of the physical letter and digitally redact all of the information.

This project is meant to critique our current cultural paradigm of over use and addiction to social media platforms.

I find that while everyone is "there," during my time using the software I find myself feeling increasingly alone. While I can voyeuristically view the happenings of my friends and loved ones, I don't feel closer, or together, with any of them.

Conversely when I am writing to people I find that they occupy my mind and time much more presently. And when they receive the letter they feel much closer to me and my life than they had prior.

This project has included hour+ long phone calls, and will eventually include an antisocial media tour where I visit people physically.

The intended format for the documentation of the project is a publication.

If you're seeing this and would like to receive a letter, please request it by phone 301 641 8004, or by letter written to:

Artist Michael Bernard Stevenson Jr.
2000 SW 5th Ave
Portland, OR 97201

In March 2017 I in Bismarck still recovering from my time at the front lines of the Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance Effort at Standing Rock North Dakota. During our time at the front line camp, Oceti Sakowin, my friend Bugz was subsisting off of eating mayonnaise and cheese due to dietary allergies. Once we had access to a kitchen and fresh produce, I made them a vegetable lasagna for their birthday.

In March 2018 I happened to notice Bugz had posted on Facebook that they had no where and no one to celebrate their 40th birthday with. I decided to get a plane ticket to Columbus Ohio where Kurt, a now mutual, friend who was willing to host the birthday festivities. During my time I gave Bugz a gentle haircut, we walked Mama, Artist Matoska’s mother, made Bugz another vegetable lasagna, Kurt a meat lasagna, and I left gifts for each of them.

After dinner I flew back to Portland.

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The Graduate Employee Union (GEU) is the Portland State University Union for Graduate Employees. The GEU has been trying to secure a fair contract for over a year prior to my attending PSU and my membership with the GEU.

The primary need upon my joining was to help the GEU increase membership in the instance of a need to go on strike. There were many approaches to this need, however my recommendation was to use food, and the premise of community, to draw people in and inform them of the current status of the union.

So far there have been a few events including a Free Coffee Cart, the Winter Warmer Soup and Schmooze, A large family meal for all three graduate unions attending AFT Oregon's winter school (CGE and GTFF), and a Homemade Lunch at the Bargaining Table.

Between these events, and other efforts unaffiliated with food, GEU Boasts a successful rise to 50% membership, and the final event resulted in reaching an agreement with administration securing the GEU's first ever contract with PSU.

Moving forward the GEU is in need of defining its culture to remain healthy and hearty looking towards renegotiation of the contract in three years. Given the high level of turnover between students graduating there is a major need to retain knowledge among the current cohort. All of this will be benefited by a community culture that gathers around food.

Later this month there will be a bargaining solidarity dinner between the GEU and the PSUFA, the adjunct faculty union at PSU.

I spent five months in Standing Rock North Dakota, camped out at Oceti Sakowin, the prayerful resistance camp in opposition of the Dakota Access Pipeline. I arrived one day after the incident at Backwater Bridge which was the scene of one of the most severe physical injuries inflicted on a human member of the prayerful resistance.

I was intending to be present for about a week and a half, but when it was time for my convoy to leave, I didn't. I remained through the end of the camps, and witnessed the militantly armored police force smash and destroy all that was created by the Water Protectors.

The entire time I was there I carried a Cannon Rebel on loan from friend and artist Miranda Ellis Hontz. Without any official account, I am nearly certain I have the most complete documentation of the social and sociopolitical environment during that time. This claim comes from the fact I was one of the only people with a camera for weeks at a time.

The circumstances in which this documentation was captured is precarious at best.

Not knowing exactly what to do with this content, it is currently on ice. I have ideas for its use, but until the appropriate people and groups sign off on its use for this purpose, it will remain closely guarded and inaccessible to the public.

Community pARTnerships is a project I participated in as an Americorps VISTA Volunteer at Arts on the Block for one year from November 2015 to November in 2016. I served as the Community Arts Coordinator whose responsibilities were engaging and collaborating with the East County Community to help create a new ongoing youth community art program for Arts on the Block.

Working closely with Impact Silver Spring we collaborated with the larger East County Community. Together we attended and organized community meetings, facilitated workshops, and ran youth led community mapping and interviewing initiatives. 

Community pARTnerships took many forms, and culminated in many amazing outputs and events. Documented in this gallery is the East County Community Social featuring the Who Got Da Best Shoes Competition. The event served to introduce Arts on the Block to the community and vice versa. The Community Social was planned in conjunction with the young people in the YES Program at the East County Community Center.

The year of service resulted in Explore-Create-Connect, a fully funded after school program at Briggs Chaney Middle School. 

More info about the East County Community Social can be found Here.

All throughout college and beyond, I modeled for figure drawing classes. I began to explore a method of modeling that involved dynamic movement during each pose. Through this process I came to meet Dang, an accomplished illustrator from China. During a meeting between Dang, myself, and Dang’s wife Lillian as a translator, I described my plan to do a performance in Manhattan where I fought the bull on Wall St. After an exchange with Dang in Chinese Lillian simply said, “When you do this, Dang will be there.” I coordinated with Dang and Lillian to meet in Manhattan to illustrate the debut of the Urban Shaman. The experience was rich for myself, Dang, his family, and hundreds of passersby. Dang produced four drawings telling the story depicting the Shaman’s Journey for the American Dream.

2015