Using sticks of charcoal, a group of prison inmates scribbled roughly on sheets of drawing paper, coloring it — their fingers and the folding tables — dark as pitch.
Next, they used bits of kneaded rubber to lift the charcoal off the paper, revealing an image against the background. It was lesson on art, for sure, a study on the interplay between positive and negative space.
But it also served as a tidy metaphor for the situation: a group of men learning to create art in a cold, prison gymnasium. Doing something positive in a negative place.
A few more than a dozen inmates took part in the Tuesday night class at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa recently, part of a 32-week painting, drawing and sculpting program called Project Paint.
Inside Donovan State Prison there is a new program exposing inmates to art by the name of Project Paint which teaches the basics of drawing and painting. Kyle Ruben working with a charcoal stick as part of the "grounding" exercises during the class. Sean M. Haffey U-T San Diego
Led by a trio of artists, the program aims to teach the inmates basic artistic techniques, along with a smattering of art history, and create an exhibit to exhibited either on the prison property or outside it. Earlier this year, another group of inmates completed a series of “mobile murals” on eight-by-seven foot wood panels to be displayed in the visitors’ rooms.
“A mural is fantastic because it adds life to a space,” said Laura Pecenco, a Ph.D candidate at UC San Diego who runs Project Paint with local artists Tara Smith Centybear and Kathleen Mitchell. Each of the five murals, all designed by the inmates, depicts a scene evoking a part of California’s varied landscape: an ocean sunset, a forest setting, a desert in bloom.
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