U.S. Prisoner Awaiting Execution Puts Art on Display
February 8, 1999 - 0:0
OAKLAND, California Awaiting execution next week for two murders, a one-time Buddhist monk has captured life with a pen and water colors in a San Quentin death row cell where he has been since 1983. Sentenced to death in 1981, Jaturun Siripongs from Thailand says he is innocent of the murders. He is scheduled to die just after midnight on February 9, a theme captured on one of his canvases in an exhibit Visions of Life: Art Out of Death Row. His artwork is marked by precise and strong colorful images.
It includes a pair of birds in full plumage, one taking flight as its companion watches intently from the branch of a tree bearing red berries. Other works done on death row feature arching goldfish, hulking elephants, an African Masai warrior, a wizened American Indian, a Japanese woman in a Kimono, and one of his own life. I'm amazed so much light and life could come from a place so dark, said Young Women's Christian Association Director and artist Jackque Warren. Laura Magnani of the American Friends Service Committee, which is hosting the exhibit, said, he sees so much life in things and puts that detail into his work.
One of the few Austere works among the 32 pieces displayed here shows a young Jaturun, shifting to his spiritual and physical adulthood and then ending with his death - represented by a skull on still water. Jaturun painted as a child, but never took any art lessons. Since being locked away, he has created an array of vibrant works in which Asian symbols, along with butterflies and images of transformation recur.
Most recently, Jaturun has taken up the Asian art of origami, meticulously folding paper into dragons, cubes and birds that hang from mobiles in a room in a grungy section of downtown Oakland. Jaturun, 44, has given his work away to friends and supporters during his imprisonment. Recipients have lent the art to American friends for the exhibit, which is slated to close the day after Jaturun's execution.
Jaturun was convicted in 1981 for stabbing two clerks to death during a convenience story robbery in Orange county. Jaturun has blamed the slayings on an accomplice whom he has refused to identify. Magnini and other death penalty opponents hope that Jaturun's artwork convinces people that even criminals who have done evil things can contribute some good to society. We are not saying that what good there is in a prisoner should cancel out what happened, Magnani said.
We are not saying not to do anything. They will never get out of prison, she said of the alternative to the death penalty. I don't see how taking another life makes things better. (AFP)
It includes a pair of birds in full plumage, one taking flight as its companion watches intently from the branch of a tree bearing red berries. Other works done on death row feature arching goldfish, hulking elephants, an African Masai warrior, a wizened American Indian, a Japanese woman in a Kimono, and one of his own life. I'm amazed so much light and life could come from a place so dark, said Young Women's Christian Association Director and artist Jackque Warren. Laura Magnani of the American Friends Service Committee, which is hosting the exhibit, said, he sees so much life in things and puts that detail into his work.
One of the few Austere works among the 32 pieces displayed here shows a young Jaturun, shifting to his spiritual and physical adulthood and then ending with his death - represented by a skull on still water. Jaturun painted as a child, but never took any art lessons. Since being locked away, he has created an array of vibrant works in which Asian symbols, along with butterflies and images of transformation recur.
Most recently, Jaturun has taken up the Asian art of origami, meticulously folding paper into dragons, cubes and birds that hang from mobiles in a room in a grungy section of downtown Oakland. Jaturun, 44, has given his work away to friends and supporters during his imprisonment. Recipients have lent the art to American friends for the exhibit, which is slated to close the day after Jaturun's execution.
Jaturun was convicted in 1981 for stabbing two clerks to death during a convenience story robbery in Orange county. Jaturun has blamed the slayings on an accomplice whom he has refused to identify. Magnini and other death penalty opponents hope that Jaturun's artwork convinces people that even criminals who have done evil things can contribute some good to society. We are not saying that what good there is in a prisoner should cancel out what happened, Magnani said.
We are not saying not to do anything. They will never get out of prison, she said of the alternative to the death penalty. I don't see how taking another life makes things better. (AFP)