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"Reflection in Action," and "Metamorphosis"

California State Prison Solano
2023

These two murals are the result of an 8-month collaborative workshop with inmates at California State Prison, Solano, in Vacaville, California. I led two separate groups to design and paint two murals for the Level 2 and 3 yards, engaging in deep conversations around incarceration, redemption, family, and home. This project, the most impactful of my career, gave me a profound understanding of balancing diverse voices on challenging topics while creating designs that honor both the inmate community and a highly regulated and restricted environment.
This workshop focused on teaching inmates key mural skills such as storytelling through art, compositional techniques, transferring designs to large canvases, painting methods, and methods for mural longevity. Working with them was a very rewarding experience, and they were able to paint the majority of the mural themselves. I built lasting friendships with the participants, and we still exchange letters today.
I believe this type of community mural is most needed in places like prisons, where justice is supposed to be served but more often is the site of profound injustice, isolation, and cruelty. In a place where walls are left intentionally blank, offering inmates a choice in what they wanted to add to their environment hopefully lessened the weight of their time spent there.
Due to the prison’s logistical restrictions, we worked with a limited set of materials and photography was restricted. The few progress shots I have were kindly provided by the prison newspaper.

 

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