Living the Liberal Arts: Troy Mead ’15, CPJ Comics Editor, Scientist, Performance Artist, Future Zookeeper or Biologist, or ….

Troy Mead is an alumnus of the first graduating class of the Health and Science High School, a magnet school in Beaverton, Oregon. Where does he think he’s headed? Somewhere in art or science; Troy doesn’t seem concerned, nor should he be. With his talents, interests, early accomplishments and energy, Troy is likely to achieve whatever his Evergreen Mind aspires to.

Troy was comics editor for the Cooper Point Journal (CPJ) last year. Among his many published works is a riff on “Schrodinger’s Cat,” a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics that states a physical system such as an electron – or a cat – exists partly in all its particular theoretically possible states simultaneously until it is observed, at which time it exists only in the state corresponding to the exact instant of observation. Don’t see the humor? Look what Troy does with the concept.

Troy says he’s always drawn comics,
just as he has always been devoted to academic disciplines surrounding zoology, biological research or conservation work, the fields to which he aspires. His first published comic Troy describes as “horrible but incredibly clever.” – irreverently playing with William Blake’s “The Lamb.” The biggest challenge for Troy is creating humor that appeals to the non-scientific mind. Finding himself creatively frustrated at 3 am, unable to come up with joke ideas that are not abstrusely science based, Troy says he either processes his creativity through a computer word generator or bounces ideas around with a “web buddy.”  Other sources of inspiration? At the moment, the cartoonist Randall Monroe, author of “XKCD” is his muse.

We’ll keep in touch with Troy and share more creations from his Evergreen mind.