Edited by Brendan Fitzgerald and Erika Howsare
Shows at a place like McGuffey Art Center are usually about refinement. The current one—a collection of works by inmates at the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail—speaks more to release. During weekly art classes, inmates—both men and women—have been making drawings, painting designs on ceramics, and creating collages. They’ve also experienced a kind of liberation that’s unique not only during their time behind bars, but in many of their lives overall. In the remarkable words of one inmate, “I had the freedom to do anything I wanted to do.” You can see the show through February 25.
See three profiles of current inmate works below: Vera Davis | Kiheem Byers | Benita Clack
Art classes in third year
Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail offers its inmates a number of opportunities for learning, from anger-management courses to GED classes. Eleven-week art classes have been part of the offerings since 2005; local artists Rose Hill, Lindsay Michie Eades, LeVonne Yountz and Andy Faith serve as teachers. “Beyond the Bars” is McGuffey Art Center’s current exhibition of these students’ projects, on view through February 25. Half the proceeds from sales of the work will go to the PACEM (People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry) shelter; the rest will go toward continuing the art programming at the jail.
These artworks are on view at McGuffey Art Center’s current show, "Beyond the Bars."
"Untitled" by Michael Harlow
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"UVA" by William Solomon
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"Untitled" by Ellen Allen
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"Untitled" by Grace Williams
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"Untitled" by Michael Eaton
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"By the Lake" by Damar Parler
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"Untitled" by Simon Treakle
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Vera Davis
Davis is serving 18 months for drug violations.
Vera Davis remembers one collage she made in an ACRJ class that showed a timeline of her life, using images of African scenery and burial grounds. “The colors [of tribal patterns] really caught my eye,” she says. “In one corner it was dark, with a grave site, and I put a little man and a monkey.” On the opposite side, “by the time I finished, it was bright. I used to love dark colors and now I love bright stuff, because I have a new outlook on life.”
"Untitled"
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At another point, Davis was placed in LeVonne Yountz’s abstract art class, which threw her at first. “I thought I was going to do ceramics,” she says. But drawing abstractly was more fun than she’d expected. “I wound up learning how to lose myself in my flow. I didn’t realize that I had so much inside. I never gave myself the chance to feel anything.”
She compares the art class to a family. “It was peaceful,” she says. “We talked about many different things; it was a real calm place. It was very inspirational because everybody had positive stuff to say.”
Davis has taken a string of classes at the jail, from culinary arts to knitting to life skills. These days she’s working at Waffle House on a work-release program, which she says is “a good transition” into her upcoming release. “My plan is to go to PVCC to further my culinary arts,” she says. “I would love to become a baker. Making things pretty—that’s what I want to do.” Art is one way she’s rediscovered herself during her incarceration. “I have nothing but hope today,” she says. “It has really given me time to find out who Vera is, and I love her—all the ins and outs and everything in between.” – E.H.
Kiheem Byers
Byers is serving about five and a half years on charges related to breaking and entering.
He’d always liked drawing, so Kiheem Byers was glad to pick up some new skills in Lindsay Michie Eades’ charcoal drawing class. “She showed me how to make something look close if it’s close, or if it’s far away how to make it look far away. Or faces—how to balance it out,” putting eyes, nose and mouth in the right positions. Where previously he’d been what he calls “a copycat drawer,” working from existing images, Eades had him drawing his classmates, or objects she brought and arranged into still lifes. “I liked drawing other inmates,” he says. “You could draw your perception.” And when everyone in the class was drawing a still life, he liked seeing the variety in the results: “You’re all drawing the same thing, but everybody’s seeing something different.”
"Mr. Parler"
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Some of the visions surprised him. “There’s a lot of talented people in the jail,” he says. In Rose Hill’s class, one of his cellmates made a painting on a ceramic piece that expressed a kind of togetherness. “I was basically living with him and I didn’t know he was feeling the way he was. That was good.”
Byers expects to be transferred to a penitentiary. “I hope to get into some art programs” there, he says. “I hope to further my education, keep busy, do something positive.” He’s glad that proceeds from the art he made in ACRJ classes will give other inmates the chance to experience what he did. “It’s good to give back. It’s a beautiful thing for people,” he says.
One thing he learned was especially freeing—that “there are no mistakes in art,” he says. “I have a problem with perfection, so that was something new. My art was perfect in my eyes.” – E.H
Benita Clack
Clack is serving two years for distribution of cocaine.
Though she’d made collages of family photos before she took Andy Faith’s class, Benita Clack was new to the abstract art taught by LeVonne Yountz. “It was hard at first,” she says. “I never thought I could do it.” Yountz had the students draw with their eyes closed. “She said to let your mind flow, let your mind wander,” says Clack. “You’d be so stressed out, but it takes over. You just have to close your eyes and concentrate.”
"Relationships"
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She feels excited by the results, and proud. “When we out in the street you don’t do that stuff.” Having her work appreciated by her classmates and teachers is a new experience. “You meet some new faces” in the art classes, she says. “The teachers are real sweet. It takes your mind off your problems; it frees your mind. You learn to be yourself, mostly.”
When she leaves jail, Clack plans to get a job and reunite with her 15-year-old son, who’s now in foster care in Richmond. She says she can see herself doing art in her spare time, especially because her son likes to draw too. “We’ll be in good competition,” she says. – E.H
