Willie Baronet – TEDxSMU 2012
Willie is an artist, professor and life/business coach living in Dallas. For 15 years he owned and managed an advertising design firm, which he sold in 2006. In 2011, he graduated with an MFA in Arts & Technology from UTD, and currently teaches in the Temerlin Advertising Institute at SMU.
Willie has been buying and collecting signs from the homeless since 1993, stemming from his discomfort over dealing with people on street corners asking for money. What transpired was a personal journey that changed the way he felt about the homeless, as he began to get to know them as people. While getting his MFA, he began creating art utilizing these signs (video, installation, interventionist performances and other mixed media), and has now participated in several group and solo exhibitions. The process of collecting the signs and of making art with them continues to transform him.