the prison artist

So like  I find it to be the ultimate irony that the economy in which the artist thrives the easiest is the prison economy. I just received a portrait of myself and my husband from my former student, current friend, Kyle who is in prison.

He had to pay for that gift somehow. The artist sells his skills for trade or commissary goods to those like Kyle who want to send a gift out. Or want to have something in their cell.

Richard tells me that in the old days, inmates used to make mop string sweaters, literally sweaters made of strings out of a new mops and they were sold as well. He told me that you could pay people in the taylor's shop to custom design your state uniform. He also said guys would make cool items of jewelry out of cigarette foiled backed paper pack that was used for freshness.

When I worked in the jail I received cardboard folded picture frames and one time a beautiful delicate rose made of toilet paper. You can't imagine how lovely this flower was. If someone had told me you could make something nice out of toilet paper, I wouldn't have believed it.

But in prisons and jails people have time and the imagination flowers. I've received beutifully drawn cards as well. And if a person can rap another inmate will hire him to write a poem for his sweetheart. Having an artistic talent is a distinct advantage in the joint.

It can make you valuable to enough people that not one group can dominate you or control you. Art is a means to freedom in prison.