Creative Work

Transcending Prison Walls

Kathryn Portwood

Multimedia

Transcending Prison Walls is a mixed-media piece that utilizes collaging techniques to depict the shortcomings of the criminal justice system. The mediums used to create this piece were limited to a portion of those that incarcerated individuals are able to use in their creation of art within prison. They include oil pastels, colored pencils, and collaging. This piece synthesizes two main issues identified with the criminal justice system: a focus on punishment rather than rehabilitation and the disproportionate representation of the Black community. The confinement of the mediums used for this piece to illustrate these two issues intends to shed light on the difficulties incarcerated individuals face daily, humanizing a population that is prejudiced against, as well as the way that art can aid in mitigating them.