I got a bit of a shock tonight.  I was browsing the gallery on ArtWanted.com and came across some rather good and colourful oil paintings. Going to the artist's blog, I was intrigued because the first thing he said was that he had no internet access and that comments  people left on his images were eventually sent to him by his sister via snail-mail. 

It turned out that he is an inmate in a US federal prison... in there for what he described as an unremarkable drug related crime, jailed for 25 years without the possibility of parole. 

My heart missed a couple of beats and my mind said... there but for the grace of God go I! Freedom is one of those blessings the value of which you only fully appreciate when you lose them.

I was touched by the last entry on his blog: I have a confession to make. When the walls and bars close in on me, and the mindless routine seeps into my spirit, I pull out the thumb-worn copies of your comments which I keep in a manila envelope, and read them again.

His name is  Henry David Potwin and you can click here to visit his website, presumably also kept up by his sister.

Meanwhile, the little squirrel head in the corner up there is the beginning of a new pastel painting I started working on today. It's for a challenge on our art forum Let's Make Art.  It will be 12x15 when it grows up.