Will to live

after art school.. i had a choice, try to be an artist... or go to work. I went to work... in the joint. Started in Somers>max<, went full time in Chesire>medium security<, and finished up my prison guard 'career' in Hartford. After being in bricks and bars type institutes, >Chesire was an antique<the cold fish tank that is Hartford ran me right out. I'm not sure if it was being threatened by a fellow officer to lie for him... carrying a man covered in shit to the captains office.. or if it was a LT named Hatten ordering me to falsify a log book to show tours I could not have made because I was doing searches for him.. or if it was just the thankless nature of the work, essential as it is, in 87 I was late for the door. In those years I carried a personal book and many drawings were made from the places I worked.
This drawing was started as expressions of feelings I had spending time with an inmate who I released from a cell to go get the news that his son was killed on the street. The man himself was distraught and several guards thought he was going to check out that night. He did not.