on the road
the august fourteenth b-b-bonus this week in outsider art *paid* newsletter
FIND OF THE WEEK
Considering I am heading down to Austin, Texas this week for a little vacation getaway before school starts back up, this piece immediately jumped out to me. I used to live in Austin, I’m visiting Austin this week, I love Austin.
This piece found me as I was looking through the Museum of International Folk Art collection and noticed a recent exhibit “Between the Lines: Prison Art & Advocacy”, an exhibit featuring the artwork from the extensive prison art collection of the Folk Art Museum.
Between the Lines: Prison Art and Advocacy seeks to rehumanize the incarcerated through a dynamic blend of in-gallery artworks, interviews with returned citizens and allies, artmaking demonstrations, and community-co-created events, this exhibition explores human rights, recidivism, systemic oppression, rehabilitation and community empowerment. (Museum of International Folk Art)
These artworks, and all artworks from prisoners locked up in penitentiaries across the country, offer a unique insight into the life of someone with nothing but the memories and determination to continue on despite the insurmountable obstacle in front of them. This artwork is a reminder that these prisoners are human at the end of the day. They were once a part of a family or community, and the pencils, markers, paper, and envelopes are one of the few connections they have to an outside world they are no longer a part of.
This work and many more are currently on exhibit at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe.
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