STUART PERLMAN, PhD
STUART PERLMAN, Ph.D. has been a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in West Los Angeles for over 40 years. He received a Ph.D. from UCLA in clinical psychology, and a second Ph.D. in psychoanalysis. He has published many articles in psychoanalytic journals, and authored the book, The Therapist’s Emotional Survival: Dealing with the Pain of Exploring Trauma. His book, Struggle in Paradise and his newest book, Open Your Heart Through Art: Painting Human Souls and Their Stories, are about 250 homeless individuals, featuring moving oil-on-canvas portraits, their life stories and what happens to them years later. He has had over 60 exhibitions with over 200 thousand people viewing them. Dr. Perlman won the 2016 Los Angeles County Psychological Association’s Social Justice Award. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors gave him an award in 2017 for his work on behalf of homeless people. Fine Art Connoisseur describes these as “Great Art Worldwide.”
The Faces Of Homelessness portrait project has been exhibited nationally, covered on Public Radio (KPCC), featured in print in Column One of the front page of the Los Angeles Times, and in other national and international publications including The Guardian (London), Taipei Times (Taiwan), Vanity Fair Italia and a cover story in the Jewish Journal. Dr. Perlman’s documentary about this project, Struggle in Paradise, won the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis’ Best Movie of the Year Award. He has received a 2023 lifetime achievement award from the International Forum for Psychoanalytic Education, “Distinguished Educator.”
Winged Prayer for Peace
(12" x 12" ink on Yupo paper)
Given the wars and genocides going on right now in the world, this piece is a plea and a prayer for peace and kindness from one human being to another.
I have been evolving as an artist and opening myself up to new ways of doing art and in new content areas. For many years I have been focused on paintings that are hyper realistic with very thick oil paints on large canvases. These have been almost solely focused on depicting the tragedy of people living and dying on the streets of Los Angeles.
Now I am primarily working more abstractly to express the experience of being alive as a human being. I have been using all sorts of surfaces and other pigmented products including inks, acrylics, and oils.
This work is an example of intentional controlled chaos where ambiguity allows the viewer to explore the painting and have their own personal experience. It is made from different types of inks on Yupo paper. Yupo is a plastic paper which is slick and nonabsorbent and very durable. The ink can be splashed on the paper and manipulated such that it will pour in different directions and painted with a brush, palette knife and other utensils in different ways. I also use many different types of ink which respond to the plastic paper in different ways. It has been exciting to explore all these possibilities.