“I received an oil portrait painting book by Howard Sanden and needed a reference photo to work from in order to complete an instructional exercise. As luck would have it, I happened upon an awesome portrait of President Obama in Rolling Stone magazine. I just had to paint him. The knowledge I gained from that first portrait encouraged me further and I was happy with the results, but knew I had to develop my newfound skills even more.

For me, Obama represents a healing hope for a deeply divided America and social progression, one that I hoped would influence the public and their divisions and ideas surrounding incarcerated people. Thank you for this opportunity allowing me to display my hopes to the general public.”