The StandDown Texas Project

An Update on Pittsburgh's Exoneration Art

The artist Dan Bolick has posted, "Painting the Exonerated," at the Innocence Project's Innocence Blog.  His exhibit at the Westmoreland Museum of American Artis noted here.  An excerpt:

I taught art for the inner-city Pittsburgh Public Schools for many years, and during that time I worked with many kids who wound up on the wrong side of the law.  Some got caught up in the legal system and found themselves being accused of petty crimes that they didn’t commit.  After being gone from my class for awhile they would return wondering “Why me?”  I tried to explain that the criminal justice system is not always fair, is somewhat broken and is simply best to be avoided.  I would tell them that sometimes the easy people to blame get fingered for crimes they didn’t commit.

The same kids would often get into trouble over and over again.  They were caught up in a viscous cycle and their crimes escalated as their anger over their situation increased.  During my final few years of teaching I saw more angry students than ever before.   Eventually the anger was directed at me, the school became a physically unsafe place to work, and I retired.

I became a full-time painter.  I attempted to paint that anger.  It was a cathartic experience for me.  Eventually, I was given the opportunity to have a solo exhibition of my paintings at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. But what to paint? Having removed myself from the classroom and painted the angry portraits eliminated the tension that I had felt, I wanted to paint something that could help people.

I decided to focus on the wrongfully convicted, to help make ordinary citizens aware of this terrible problem in society.  I first reached out to several exonerees and got no response. But I wasn’t going to let the project die.  After a month went by I began to research the Innocence Project and similar organizations across the country and came across a play called “Voices of Innocence,” written by four death row exonerees in New Orleans.  I figured that if they had already turned their horrible experiences into art they would be more open to my project.  I was right.  They agreed to allow me to come down to New Orleans to meet with them.

This morning Bolick added a second post, "Art and Injustice."

In May 2008 I met John Thompson. JT, who spent 18 years incarcerated for a murder he did not commit – 14 of those on death row – is the founder of Resurrection After Exoneration, which provides support for the wrongfully convicted after they are released from prison. The organization has built an incredibly inspiring and cooperative community.

I showed JT some photos of my portraits and explained my project to him. He was enthusiastic about it and began to contact other exonerees who would allow me to do their portraits. During my first trip to New Orleans I met with and photographed five of the ten men I would eventually paint.

And:

I painted portraits of these ten exonerees, and the show opened at the museum on June 13th with a powerful reception. I have found through this experience that most people do not wish to talk about the issue of wrongly incarcerated people. But when the issue is turned into art and these men are humanized, people become passionate and freely give their opinions. During the opening there were more than a few tears shed. Art can be very powerful.

I want to keep the project going. I hope to paint additional exonerees in the months ahead and bring the paintings to more audiences around the country, because this is a critical issue and I believe art opens to the door to an important dialogue about injustice.

Thanks to the Innocence Blog for being an always vital source.

Today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has, "Exonerated prisoners' stories are depicted in artist's project," written by Mary Thomas.

Daniel Bolick never expected to meet his Muse in the darkness he was navigating through. But out of torment came purpose and a clarity about the direction of his artwork that has taken him beyond anything he could have imagined.

The resultant series of paintings and drawings form his solo exhibition, "Resurrected," at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg. At 7 p.m. tomorrow he'll give a free gallery talk, "Damnation to Redemption," about his own path and those of the exonerated prisoners he depicts who once sat on death row or faced life imprisonment.

It's a subject that people don't want to talk about, and when they do they find reason to excuse the legal system's faults or to blame the accused, Bolick observes. But artwork taps an emotional nerve. "I saw a couple of tears during the opening," he says.

Ten individuals are depicted, one of whom was living in Braddock when convicted; the others are from New Orleans. Six were on death row for murder; the others had received life sentences for second-degree murder or rape.

The paintings are large, half of them measuring 61/2 feet in height. "What happened to them was monumental," Bolick says, "and I wanted to paint them that way." He also wanted them to be confrontational, surrounding the viewer in the small gallery.

As dramatic are smaller drawings of the men accompanied by texts that relate their harrowing stories. These are synthesized in the painting titles, as for the only Pennsylvanian represented: "Drew Whitley -- Sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder he did not commit. Exonerated after 18 years."

And:

At noon July 22, Bill Moushey will give a free talk about the "Innocence Movement" in the United States. Since the Institute was formed in 2001 to investigate cases of wrongful convictions in Western Pennsylvania, it has exonerated 14 individuals. He is a Point Park associate journalism professor and former Post-Gazette reporter who, in 1997, won the National Press Club Freedom of Information Award and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Westmoreland Museum of American Art has more, here.  The Westmoreland Museum also has this news release.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, he taught art for thirty-four years in the Pittsburgh Public School System, retiring in 2007. Bolick earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Kent State University and has shown his work throughout the region, including in The Westmoreland's 2008 Juried Biennial. His love for and appreciation of the arts came as a result of his early participation in the Tam-o-Shanter Saturday art program at Carnegie Museum of Art. He resides in Export, PA, with his wife and two children.

Thursday, July 9 at 7 PM
Artist Gallery Talk: Damnation to Redemption
In a dramatic style matched only by the dramatic personal journeys of his subjects, Daniel brings to life the stories of ten men whose lives were destroyed and are now restored after spending years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Join the artist as he describes his personal journey to create these larger than life canvasses.

Image courtesy of Westmoreland Museum of American Art.

Art in London

"Face-to-face with death row inmates at London show," is the title of Julie Mollins' Reuters report.

Death row inmates depicted in oil paintings by British artist Claire Phillips, on view in London's South Bank gallery@oxo, have one thing in common.

"All are demonstrably innocent, or very probably innocent," according to Clive Stafford Smith, director of prisoners' rights organization Reprieve, which sponsors the touring five-day "Human Face of Death Row" exhibit on show at Oxo until July 5.

"They are very powerless people who face an incredible distillation of hatred resulting in society wanting them dead."

Among the paintings of three current inmates is Briton Linda Carty, who has been on death row in Texas for eight years for murdering a neighbor. Her case is in the final stage of the appeals process.

The prosecution's case was based on testimony from three people accused of the same murder who, in exchange for statements against Carty, avoided the death penalty, according to Reprieve.

The four-hour visit Phillips had with Carty was held under armed guard.

And:

Phillips, originally from Hammersmith in London, was not permitted to take any painting tools with her when she visited the inmates, so created the portraits from memory and other sources.

The exhibition also includes images of three former death row inmates who were freed after serving prison terms, along with an executioner; a legislator who introduced lethal injection and a foreperson on a jury that convicted and sentenced a man to death who was later found to be innocent.

"All the black people are on death row and all the white people are in positions of authority," Phillips said of her portraits.

"I didn't intend to become a campaigner," she added. "As an artist I wanted to communicate their stories.

"I've achieved putting the stories together. Make your mind up -- is this system the way to go?"

Reprieve founder and lawyer Stafford Smith is also featured in one of the paintings.

Phillips selected him as a subject because she was intrigued by him as someone "who had all the advantages of a public school education and yet had chosen to ignore the attractions of wealth and materialism in order to defend the powerless and vulnerable."

More on the exhibit is here.