NEWTON COUNTY – The Newton County Sheriff’s Office hosted its inaugural art exhibit last Thursday, allowing its graduating class of eight students to present their art pieces to family and friends.
The initiative, a group effort by Sheriff Ezell Brown, Captain Brice Smith and Workforce Development Program Coordinator Tongela Smith, was inspired by a similar program in Chatham County, where inmates participated in art workshops.
NCSO’s two month art program, led by art instructor Dr. Zerric Clinton, provided inmate residents an allotted time each week to express themselves creatively. Meeting every Monday, Clinton would assign homework to his students and set deadlines for them to be completed.
“When I got the opportunity to work with the students here, I jumped at it,” Clinton said. “This was a really different experience for me. I guess it kind of pulled a lot out of me being in a different environment than a traditional classroom, but it went very well.
At the art program’s graduation ceremony, each student with the exception of two being absent, were invited to the stage to offer insight into their creative visions. The class of eight included: Destiny Oliver, Kelly Choma, Tonya Blair, Teresa Hunt, Jahyssa Thomas, Jennifer Bagley, Tamekia Clark and Rachel Willis.
“This one’s a clown,” Oliver said. “I really drew it because life is like a clown. It’s scary and it’s funny. But you got to get back up and try again. And then I did a butterfly, and it’s got flowers and stuff because one day we’re gonna be free.”
“I’m not gonna lie at the beginning, I was all for it, and I really didn’t have the confidence after that,” Choma said. “So what I did was I turned around and I gave up. Well, here recently, I poured my heart into this one.... If you’re looking from an angle, there’s hidden angels. I call it my hidden angel. I have lost everything since I’ve been here. I know He’s got plans for me.”
“This really just started out like a doodle, but then the more I got into it, especially with my colors, I was trying to catch her moving because this is me,” Blair said. “To be able to express myself like this is the proper way. This is the way I really want to wake up in the morning and go to bed at night and approach my family and interact with other people. Having said that, her being my inner child, this is what I aspire to be.”
“This is something I finally realized in life, that I always felt about me being a victim and I blamed everybody else,” Hunt said. “I’ve come to realize that my mother was a victim also. I didn’t really realize how much she [has] done for us kids, she put up with a lot of stuff from my father. My mom stood her ground and she’s still here and today and I just want her to know that I’m sorry and I love you. It took me a long time to realize that you were still a victim like me and I apologize.”
“I had done a painting of this years ago,” Bagley said. “I had to put it down with pencil, lead. I painted it with my best friend when she was in hospice. Her name was Marie. Just being still, thinking, feeling, wondering what the fog was about. It wasn’t sad, but it was the past, and there will be a reoccurring love, and I will see her again. So there is an ending to that, and that will be color.”
To conclude the artists’ statements, Tamekia Clark kept it simple when describing her art, summing up the effects that the art program has seemingly had on every student.
“I’m growing to be a better person by each day that passes by,” Clark said.
All of the artwork created will be displayed throughout the Newton County Sheriff’s Office in places chosen by the eight artists.
“[They will be] on display so that we can show the general public that we have great minds at the moment,” Brown said. “Perhaps their physical bodies are trapped, but they still share a dream or a story.”
Though the graduating class included all women, the NCSO plans on continuing the art program and offering classes to male inmates in the near future.
“We’re always looking for something positive for our inmates to be able to express themselves,” Smith said. “We’re gonna continue this.”
Following the ceremony, Smith shared her thoughts on the outcome of the art exhibit and the structure it provided for its students.
“I think [art is] more than an outlet,” Smith said. “I think it calls [the inmate residents] to not only look at their now, but see their future. The ladies [and] gentlemen coming [to] our next class are going to be able to find not only their life in writing, drawing, but they’re also going to be able to write their future in pictures. That’s the impact.”
