OBU student Reed Factor is an up and coming graphic designer from Shawnee, and he served in the military for eight years in the air force. He was deployed to Afghanistan for a year while in service, and then he found his way to OBU after completing his eight years of military service.
After serving active duty for six years and reserve for two, he left the military. After looking at his military benefits, he saw the education benefits that were provided.
“So after six years [active] and two years inactive in the army, I got out and kind of was just in stuff. You know, with the VA benefits, the education benefits. So, it just seems like I’m just sitting on
unused benefits,” he said. He then came to OBU using these benefits to major in graphic design. He is looking at working for the Oklahoma Thunder doing graphic design.
“I want to try to actually work with the Thunder, I always see a bunch of openings within that organization, in the design sector. I think that’d be really cool,” he said.
Reed said he hopes to pursue a career in graphic design rather than the traditional arts.
Reed says his main inspiration for his art is his Seminole heritage.
“I try to do a lot of Native American sets as I am native, [despite] some of the project prompts, but I try to fit it in as much as I can,” he said. Looking at his art you can see his Native American heritage reflected in much of his artwork. This is the main inspiration behind one of his paintings titled “Still Here.” This painting depicts a Seminole tribesman, who is his brother, with a sunset behind him.
“A lot of people. . . think we were just back then but we’re still here, kind of like the heritage and
the culture is so existent, you know, it does get rushed over, yeah, especially actually now in
Oklahoma with other tribes.,” he said.
When asked what he hopes students take away from his artwork he said “just that you don’t have
to be a subject matter expert in one area, but it’s good to have variety. So, I guess it’s, you know,
a variety of different mediums. It’s always good to try different things, because in my show,
there’s a range, or a roster.”
He said he hopes that students feel a freedom to explore different mediums because of his art.
Because of his transition from military service to academics Reed found art to be an escape from
the products of war.
“[Art] gets your mind off of anything, and it just puts a different goal in front of you,” Reed said.
