I came across an interesting article in The Oregonian titled “Drawings signed by convicted killer Ward Weaver for sale on Internet.”  While the notion of prisoner artwork historically falls into the vague genre of “outsider art,” this story highlights the phenomena of living serial killers selling their sketches and drawings through third party websites to fund their prison commissary accounts, to earn money for friends and relatives, and perhaps in hopes to remain in the public eye.  Prisoners being able to sell anything at a profit is currently illegal in something like six states.  A market for this “murderabilia” has formed online, but it can’t be that profitable (as an interviewee in the story claims); one of the disturbing sites I checked out (that, by the way, looks like it, too, was created by a serial killer) sold works in the $17 to $75 price range.

The mostly tacky artwork on this particular site included reproductions of Garfield, the Tazmanian Devil, as well as original, disturbing images of highly sexualized women- some dead- that one might expect to be more aligned with the psyche of someone on death row.  One of the more respectable works I found (pictured above), by “Manson discipline” Wayne Horton, sort of looks like a poor man’s Richard Prince and is selling for under $20- with free shipping!  Unfortunately, there’s no room left on my fridge.

I’m not opposed to the idea of prisoners being able to sell their art if it’s truly an artistic creation and expression (cartoon characters wouldn’t meet this threshold).  In fact, their life experiences are so interesting that, if properly trained, they doubtless could create meaningful pieces.  But, the websites featured in this news article aren’t a respectable forum for appreciating the context of artwork– it’s being marketed as a freak show novelty, or even worse, a sort of cult hub for those who idolize these figures.

Long night due to a work event, so a really short post– but I was inspired to share this neat article from the New York Daily News about an auction of prisoner art that just took place to support an organization that encourages inmates to create artwork while studying for their GEDs.  Some of the artwork, which I couldn’t find pictures of online, will be exhibited at the Queens Museum of Art in mid-June.

Related to outsider art (or naive art, depending on who you talk to), I wanted to share a super cheap chalk portrait that I recently picked up and had framed.  It’s late 19th/early 20th century with no signature on thick brown paper.  Outside the norm for me to collect, but find it charming– enjoy!