I am thrilled that my art will be on display at the Ann Arbor Art Center from March 15- April 5, 2018. Metal sculpture from my Mass Incarceration Series is displayed on the first floor Gallery along with Juliet Seignious’ work entitled Requiem/ChalkLines. There will be a closing reception and conversation with us on April 4 from 5-7 at the Center on 117 W. Liberty St., Ann Arbor, MI. 48104. Please come!

Capturing Re/Viewing Oppression

As many of you know I have long been concerned, interested and have written about prisons. I worked in a woman’s prison as a therapist; I co-authored a biography that was set in California’s prisons (Inside the Crips; Life Inside LA’s Most Notorious Gang with Colton Simpson who is currently serving 126 years for a robbery ); I have loved family members who served time. In spite of incarceration’s dehumanization and arbitrary viciousness, men and women in prison, like all of us, search for purpose, and knowledge in order to survive, love, and plan meaningful futures. And to prepare for freedom. My relationships, along with an awareness of the scourge of mass incarceration, pushed me to envision life peering through bars, razor wire, and slit windows. . Thus, I imagined what it might be like to spend time stuck in a maximum-security prison cell where my outstretched arms reach two sides of my cage, and the sink and toilet are connected. The Mass Incarceration Series is the result of the images from their words, and my visits.

Prison Jammed

Recently, Juliet Seignious and I have collaborated in creating paintings. We play off each other’s images, ideas, colors and forms. Sometimes this is wordless. Sometimes we play music. It is like an improvised dance.   Then we walk around the painting considering, “What next?” Once again, we bounce off each other’s images and colors. We’re impressionistic and playful and joyful.   Prison Jammed was created especially for this show.

In the upstairs gallery, there is a show on Protest Art by David Olson and, on March 24 from 11-1, a panel discussion on Radical Democracy will include speakers who were part of the Weather Underground and SDS.

So my art, along with Juliet’s, will be part of an artistic examination, a visual exploration, of some of the heart rendering and alarming social, and political problems we are now facing.

I hope you have a chance to view the art. And, as always, I’d love to hear what you think! Please comment, and come to the closing reception on April 4 from 5-7 and talk with us.

See you there on April 4!