Art From Inside; A prison watchdog group will mount an exhibit of paintings and sculptures by Illinois inmates next month —and relatives of some of their victims are furious
By Sarah Baraba
The Chicago Sun-Times
JOLIET, Ill. — Charles McLaurin tries to create paintings that reflect what he considers his personal philosophy.
“I have this belief about life that there is a balance between chaos and order,” he says. “One cannot exist without the other.”
Janie Edwards has her own view of McLaurin’s art.
“He should draw a rope and hang himself in that cell,” she says.
McLaurin is a lifer at Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet.
Edwards is the south suburban Richton Park woman whose 17-year-old son, Jarrell Edwards, was killed by McLaurin in 1992.
“It helps me to grow”
Paintings and sculptures created by McLaurin and other Illinois inmates within the confines of their cells are set to go on display at an exhibit in Chicago next month -- and Edwards and her relatives are not happy about it.
But organizers of the exhibit argue it is a way to help rehabilitate the prisoners and provide recognition for something positive they do.
“Their artwork is a way of showing people still have promise, even in a place where they’re never going to be free again,” says Shaena Fazal, of the John Howard Association, the prison watchdog group sponsoring the exhibit.
Called “Lights From Inside,” the exhibit opens Aug. 11 at the Chicago Cultural Center.
“I think it helps me to grow and to get to know myself,” says William Jones, 53, who stabbed a Mount Vernon woman to death in 1982. Like McLaurin, Jones saw his death sentence commuted to life in prison in 2003 by then-Gov. George Ryan.
“Sometimes, you need to be locked up to really comprehend what life is about,” Jones says.
The inmates’ subject matter runs the gamut -- flowery still lifes, landscapes, religious works, family portraits and depictions of prison life. Some can be viewed at http://lightsfrominside.blogspot.com.
While several of the prisoners have multiple pieces in the exhibit, some haven’t made art in years. Facing budget cuts and public scrutiny, Stateville cut art, education and other inmate programs.
“You get creative,” says Hector Maisonet, 49, serving 30 years for attempted armed robbery. “I’ve rubbed the colors off newspapers and magazines in order to come up with something.”
Stateville inmate Patrick Palaggi will have a 26-inch-tall windmill built from Popsicle sticks in the show. Being in prison, he says he never knows when his work might be confiscated or destroyed. “It makes you feel violated, just like you violated someone else in life, now you know what it feels like,” says Palaggi, 43, doing life for the 1987 murders of a mother and son from Country Club Hills.
‘That’s how we get’
Creating a plasterlike substance from newspaper and water, inmate Cornelius Ames has sculpted model buildings, baseball caps, motorcycles and jets. Sentenced to more than 28 years for sexual assault and home invasion, Ames says he hopes those who suffered from his crimes would understand the exhibit. “I would say I’m sorry,” says Ames. “I’m trying to better myself.”
For some, art is therapy. “A lot of us have mental issues and don’t know it,” says McLaurin. “Some of us don’t want to acknowledge it.”
A sketch artist since he was 12, McLaurin, 42, does the preliminary sketches for other inmates’ paintings.
“We have some artists who want to skip the process,” McLaurin says. “They don’t want to draw, but they want to paint. You see them run into obstacles and stumbles. I keep telling them they have to learn the basics.
“As if they’re going somewhere tomorrow,” he adds, laughing.
McLaurin was not aware of his victim’s relative’s remarks about the exhibit, but he shrugged off a general question about whether anyone would object to putting convicts’ work on display.
“That’s how we get,” he says. “We don’t see our faults. We see everybody else’s faults.”
Gacy, Speck made art too
McLaurin was convicted of setting Jarrell on fire after slitting the boy’s throat, slashing him with a razor and dousing him with gasoline during a burglary in Sauk Village.
Prison art exhibits are not new. Works by serial killer John Wayne Gacy, mass murderer Richard Speck and mob hit man Harry Aleman have all gone on display.
The John Howard Association stresses they are not trying to glorify the prisoners in their showing.
“We’re not trying to make heroes out of these guys,” says Aviva Futorian, an exhibit organizer. “We’re trying to rehabilitate them. That’s good for society and good for the victims.”
A relative of the boy McLaurin killed says he believes art can be therapeutic for some criminals -- but not for McLaurin.
“I don’t think a murderer can be reformed,” says Gussa Harris, Jarrell’s aunt. “He cannot be helped. He should be in a dark room every day of his life.”
Another aunt, Ira Foster, hopes to attend the exhibit.
“I hope the whole Chicago Police force will be there,” she says. “I will tear every last piece of art off that wall.”
Lights From Inside: Some of the works are online at http://lightsfrominside.blogspot.com.
Copyright 2008 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.