Georgia License Plate Completes Artist’s Project

Georgia ultimately made it a perfect union.

Mike Wilkins’ quest to spell out phonetically the 52-word preamble to the United States Constitution, in its bicentennial year, with a license plate from each state and the District of Columbia appeared doomed last summer when officials in Atlanta refused to issue him a plate because he did not have a vehicle registered in that state.

“I’m not sure what changed their minds in Georgia,” said the 27-year-old San Francisco artist, “but I’m glad they did. Having plates from all of the states really makes the whole thing work.”

Georgia’s FEC UNE (for parts of perfect union ) arrived in November, he said, about two months after he had hoped to have the project finished.

The next step, Wilkins says, is finding a sponsor for a poster of the work. “I’m trying to find a corporation, perhaps in the auto industry, to finance it. I’ve spent about $2,500 on the project and want to at least recoup that.”

That price tag included $1,800 in telephone calls, $400 in plates--including $36 for California’s DIDD (for part of united )--and a couple of hundred dollars in mailing costs.

After the poster, the project will be headed for public display. An Eastern museum, Wilkins says, has expressed interest in accepting it.

“People use personalized plates as an artistic expression, a medium for everyman,” Wilkins said. “The symbolism here is that every plate has an individual voice--a discrete part--and when you put those voices together you get a united message.”