I started drawing in the county jail in 1996 to help maintain some sanity. I found that drawing allowed me to manage what I was thinking about. I would focus more on the image and less on my predicament and isolation as I ended up spending 2 years in jail before ultimately being found guilty of Second-Degree Murder.
Between 1998 and 2004, while in prison, I taught myself to draw, portraits for the other incarcerated men. When I got here to SQ in 2004, I was able to shift to painting through the Arts in Corrections program. While in this program I would meet Mr. Patrick Maloney who taught me to see art as a tool for problem-solving and how doing so would allow me to express myself in a positive way, giving me a voice and helping me give back to society and my community.
Through Arts in Corrections I started a mural crew that beautified the very walls that confined us, bringing a positive to what the incarcerated perceived as a negative.
Looking back at who I was before art I see an angry, fractured and intense person needing attention, to be heard and to be noticed. For me, art encompasses these feelings in a way that does not hurt people but transforms the experience for both the artist and the viewer and enhances our lives instead of damaging them. Making art was the beginning of my rehabilitation and the introduction to who I have become.
