The Art of Life

Kenn Coplan never will forget the pain and humiliation he felt on the day he learned that some of his junior high teachers actually were making bets that he would fail the school year.

And then there were the taunts from neighborhood kids, who called the van that took him and other learning-disabled students to school the “retard bus.”

He learned early on that kids--and sometimes adults--can be cruel.

For 12 years in Glenview, Ill., Coplan endured psychological evaluations, endless meetings with social workers and neurological tests.

He was shuffled to about 10 schools, sent to classes with mentally retarded children and placed on various drugs.

What he did have is a variety of learning disabilities, Coplan said. What he did not have was an advocate who could save him from the system.

It took 10 years, countless requests from his parents, and one teacher who spotted Coplan’s potential before he finally was mainstreamed in his sophomore year of high school.

He made straight A’s. Then he earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree.

Today at 27, Coplan is a successful artist in Newport Beach whose work has sold for up to $4,000.

Recently, he found a way to take some sting out of those painful years. It is an exhibit titled “NSSED File No. 5279” at the Storefront Studio in University Center. “NSSED” stands for Northern Suburban Special Education District, where he was enrolled.

The stark exhibit includes, for example, more than 200 documents, progress reports and evaluations about him--No. 5279--from kindergarten through high school. It also includes a chalkboard on which is written repeatedly, “I will stay in my seat during class,” in memory of a teacher who marched him to the front of the class whenever he fidgeted and made him write until his hand cramped.

“I wanted to make an impact and, hopefully, to allow others to experience just a tiny bit of what I went through, for them to feel the hurt I felt, to see the devastation that simple words can have on a person for the rest of their life,” he said.

One of his earliest memories of a counselor is from age 6.

“I was sitting in some psychologist’s office, surrounded by people who were talking about me,” he said. “And I was pretending to be Groucho Marx. Looking back, I think it’s pretty cool that a kid of that age even knew who Groucho Marx was. But these people were just horrified. They said I wasn’t living in reality and had serious problems.”

What they didn’t realize, Coplan says, is that “my only friends were the ones I made from watching TV. Other kids didn’t want to play with me because they would see me get off of the ‘stupid’ bus at school every day.”

The worst part of having learning disabilities, he said, was the daily attack on his self-esteem.

“Teachers would talk about me behind my back and call me a crybaby,” he said. “The only thing that helped me survive is that my parents believed in me. They understood me when nobody else did. I really believe that if I hadn’t had that support at home, I probably would have killed myself at some point.”

Coplan graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia with a master of fine arts degree in photography.

“Once I got away from being . . . subjected to isolation from so-called normal students, I fell in love with learning,” he said. “These days, I love to read and learn and to visit libraries. I can’t get enough of it.”

After college, Coplan said, he “ended up teaching for a while at one of the schools I attended, and I had the opportunity to confront some of those teachers who were so cruel.”

He relishes one memory in particular.

“I went right up to this one teacher and I said, ‘Hi. Remember me? I was one of those “retards” that you didn’t want in your class. Well, guess what? I have a master’s degree now and I’m an artist.’ He was just totally speechless. He didn’t apologize to me or anything, but maybe I made him think a little bit.”

A few years ago, Coplan had his picture taken in front of every school he had attended. Those now are part of the exhibit.

“As hard as it was to see some of the schools and remember the things I went through, it was also a good experience in a way,” he said. “I hope I never forget these experiences, because they helped shape me into the person I am today.”

Coplan makes his living through photography, graphic design and mixed-media sculptures that he calls “funky, somewhat bizarre creations that defy description.”

Although he is trying to make peace with his past, there are things he must live with always.

“I’d like to pretend that I don’t have a learning disability,” he said. “But I do. And I always will. . . .

“But I’m creative, and I’m smart in other ways. I’ve run across many people who are learning disabled. A lot of them are artists. But most schools are set up in such a way that those who are creative are looked at as having a weakness if they can’t cut it in a regular classroom. That’s a horrible injustice.”

Coplan said creating the exhibit, which will be on view through Nov. 21, was cathartic.

“My mom and I sat around the kitchen table and sifted through papers and information from those years,” he said. “We laughed and we cried.”

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An Artist’s Story

* What: Art exhibit titled “NSSED File No. 5279”

* Artist: Kenn Coplan

* When: Through Nov. 21

* Where: The Storefront Studio, University Center, across from the UC Irvine campus at Bridge Road and Campus Drive

* Hours: 5-10 p.m. Wednesdays; 6-9 p.m. Fridays; noon-5 p.m. Saturdays, 1-6 p.m. Sundays

* Information: (714) 724-6880 or (714) 854-3779

Source: Kenn Coplan

Researched by LISA ADDISON / For The Times