PCAP, PINK PEOPLE & A PASSING SHIP

If you’re interested in finding an affordable piece of artwork for your living room and you don’t mind giving money to a convicted bank robber, murderer, or rapist (perhaps a pedophile), then the Prison Creative Arts Program (PCAP, Prison Art ) is the place to shop. Every year the PCAP Administrator, Suzanne Gothard, and Project Director, Buzz Alexander, visit various Michigan prisons and collect artwork ranging from graphite sketches, acrylic paintings, and pencil drawings. Once they’ve chosen the best work, they organize an exhibit at the University of Michigan’s Media Union Gallery.

I remember them examining artwork at my facility and leaving with a treasure trove of goodies. Not all the inmates were happy though, some questioned why their pieces weren’t selected. “Look,” I told one crybaby, “your painting’s quite pleasing to the eye, however, it lacks originality.” When an argument ensued, I suggested he leave the magazine clipping of the nature scene he replicated off the matted frame. “It shows that you have no vision to call your own.”

Ironically, Gothard and Alexander must have been enamored with a series of acrylic paintings depicting pink people—the flesh tones all wrong and the illustrations something you might see a child scribble in his grade school notebook. I’d heard that these paintings were very popular with the art crowd, yet they reminded me of “South Park.”

In the above photo, I’m holding a 2004 1st place graphite sketch. The artist (don’t ask about his criminal past) worked on it for well over a year. I paid $0.00 for it, but I’m sure it’s increased in value since then. Hey, all of a sudden my mother-in-law’s oil painting, “Passing Ship on a Dangerous Sea,” doesn’t look so bad. How about I sell both of them to you?—a two-for-one deal. Or how about a trade? I’ve been looking for a Kevorkian pastel to brighten up my day and of course: my living room.