My work tackles the conversation around punishment, examining pejorative perceptions of felons. I challenge the myths and stereotypes given those who have been released from incarceration. I expand the conversation surrounding the reparations desired by the victims and the public from the formerly incarcerated. Their dignity, their future, what of that? I address their present, their past – beyond incarceration – and their future. By challenging stereotypical, preconceived notions of their worth, I present them as fully human.

The viewer looks at the compilations of stripped down versions of these fellow humans as exhibited in the paintings, the viewer reads their archival documents, and s/he hears their oral histories, with a new ability to rethink the former inmates’ relatedness.

Artwork by Glynn B. Cartledge