Prisoner art displayed at defender’s offices

Associated Press

AKRON

A portrait of entertainer Erykah Badu drawn in pen, coffee and wax; a 3-D oil piece using toilet paper for grapes and a painting expressing frustration at the justice system are all part of an Ohio exhibit of prisoner artwork being featured by the U.S. public defender’s office through 2012.

The Akron Legal News reports that the federal public defender for northern Ohio, Dennis Terez, is hosting the project at his offices in Akron, Cleveland and Toledo.

Prisoners have created about 300 artworks for the shows on fabric, paper and canvas, and framed by 2-by-4s cut and painted by inmates in the garage of Carol Briney, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Reentry Bridge Network in Canton, which holds projects inside prisons and seeks to help released inmates transition into the community.

Terez said most of the artwork tends to be hopeful.

“In the criminal justice system, often we overlook the value they have. There are talented people found in prison. It’s a slice of our society. Our clients are artists, too,” he said. “The national average is 95 percent of people come out. If that’s so, when an ex-felon enters the community, they have the talent to contribute.”

Among the works on display in Akron are portraits by the late Jimmy Corrin Sr., who was imprisoned in Ohio for 30 years and drew on handkerchiefs during stints in solitary confinement, using a state-issued pen, black coffee and floor wax. Among his subjects are Ray Charles and Bob Dylan.

Inmate Alfred Cleveland painted himself crouching before a panel of judges, stacks of legal briefs and the words “hate” and “lies.”

The Akron show features about 30 to 40 pieces, and more will be displayed later this month in Toledo and in Cleveland.