Art Saves by Douglas Lehman
Medium: Pen Ink and pencil
Size: 8.5 x 11
Title: Art Saves
Medium: Pen Ink and pencil
Size: 8.5 x 11
Artist statement: Well Hello there, my name is Douglas DE Lehman and I’m so excited and honored to be able to take part in your exhibit and fundraiser this year. It was the drawing “Art Saves” that was created after I had the epiphany that art and creativity could and would be my saving activity that has literally kept me with my will to live, and my sanity through 10 years of solitary confinement and 23 years of prison in Colorado’s most active yards. Art is simply not a habit to me, but the blood in my veins that gives me life. My art has manifested into a positive force that has helped me to change so many of my past bad life choices, and helped me to help so many others in prison and to truly experience my own humanity and to keep my sanity. “Art Saves” is what freedom looks like to me in the penitentiary.
Image description This pen ink and pencil drawing shows a woman’s head and her cupped hands. She has long blond hair parted in the middle. Her eyes are closed and “Dream” is scripted above her left eyebrow. Her head rises above and behind a scene of rocky mountain peaks. Her hands appear to reach through the mountains at their base where the tree line begins. Her hands are cupped around a cracked egg from which four butterflies have emerged and are encircling her head. A fifth butterfly is emerging from the egg. Her left hand has the letters F R E E on her four fingers. She is holding her hands above the valley floor where a few cabins can be seen among the pines but the valley floor is ablaze with tall flames. The artist’s stylized initials “DC” are in the lower right corner.