On the Outside: Prisoner Reentry & Reintegration
About the Artist: Curtis Chase
"Troubled Man is that inconsequential by-product, birth within the inner cities laced with systemic inequality, racial disparity, oppression and despair."
Chase's Biography: "I was born and raised in the city of Detroit. As a product of my environment, I'll always remember the many (obsolete) homeless men, women, and children within my environment as the precious floral decorations in my memories that inspired a few of my pieces. As a child, I gravitated to art to escape an abusive home and a world full of angry, hateful people. I wasn't a very good artist, yet, my mother would always praise my efforts with a hugs and kisses, that meant more to me than all the candy in the penny candy store. After mother's divorce, we could only afford a house in low income areas high in crime and violence. Poverty was a growing infestation, yet , there were always those precious golden threads, woven within the community, rich in kindness and sound advice. Today as a Christian Jehovah's Witness, I have allowed those seeds of thought to take root in heart when I share my art with others and the for-sure promises of God for a Paradise future."
Other Works by Curtis Chase
Innocence Of War
I was inspired to create this piece because I have a soft spot in my heart for the innocent children in this cold world caught up in adult issues they know nothing about. I grew up in a violent, abusive home and environment; I had to escape within my own world for many years to maintain my sanity. Whether overseas in Iraq, or on the mean streets of Detroit, a child will compensate by escaping reality through imagination and fantasy. That's the beauty in all children. These are the forgotten ones, but only by some, not by God. This is a piece that carries a lot of meaning; and believe it or not, Hope. The war wreckage in the painting are memorials of the pass. The piece has a spiritual undertone. The yellow book under her hand is a book of Bible Stories I was read as a child. It was full of colorful pictures that ends with the fulfillment of God's promises to elevate war, sickness, and death.
Troubled Man and Chase's other works were painted as part of the Prison Creative Arts Project at the University of Michigan