Questioning Parameters:

"For him, artistically, he served no one but himself," said Taylor Davis, a fellow artist and close friend of Tom Perkins, who graduated from Plymouth State University in 2009 with a BA in Fine Arts.

On Oct. 24, 2011, friends of Perkins decorated Collins Gallery in the Draper & Maynard Building with samples of his work. The exhibit, which hung until Fri., Nov. 4, was put up to commemorate Perkins, who passed away on Sept. 19, 2011, while climbing near Rumney Rocks in Rumney, N.H.

Perkins, who spent a year at MassArt in Boston, transferred to PSU to pursue a degree in art. His profound talent as an artist quickly gained him recognition on campus and in the Art Department.

"He worked constantly and was very prolific," said Tom Driscoll, professor of art at PSU and a former professor of Perkins. "When you saw on of his pieces that was computer-generated, you knew there was an artist behind it."

A few of these computer-generated pieces were on display at Collins Gallery. They exhibit Perkins' unique ability to breathe beauty and color into something entirely digital, and herald his keen eye for seeing art in what is often considered purely functional.

Perkins' work was "very prolific" and "always questioning parameters," said Driscoll. "He was very reserved and soft-spoken," said Driscoll of Perkins, and "was a brilliant person and an outstanding artist."

"Tom had an amazing grasp of technology and was able to effectively utilize the computer without sacrificing his aesthetic vision," said Driscoll.

Evident by the pieces on display in Collins Gallery, Perkins' work was heavily influenced by and reminiscent of technology and computers. Many of the works on display consisted of intricate line patterns and sequences, suggesting networks of wires and circuits, alive with energy, yet simultaneously sound and elegant.

Tom "achieved a level of artistic transcendence that allowed him to resolve his ideas with absolute clarity, in an infinite number of ways," said Davis, who learned to draw with Perkins in elementary school and created art alongside him throughout college.

Annette Mitchell, a professor of art at PSU, described Tom as "an excellent student" that was both "highly respected" by the Art Department and a student that members of the department "were privileged to work with."

"Tom was a thoughtful individual who enjoyed privacy and experiencing visual complexity," said Mitchell. "Tom dedicated himself to his work and his images, both two-dimensional and digital, to reveal his infinite capacity for abstract thinking."

"I always regarded my work as less than his, but he was more than encouraging and genuinely engaged in what I did," said Davis. "I'm going to miss that rare kind of honesty most of all, I think."