William Payne

Why do you use the medium you use?

When I first came to prison I left two daughters in the world. I could paint them pictures but I feel Dad's homemade stuffed animals mean more.

What role does art play in your life?

It helps focus my energy and connect with other people. There are a lot of "groups" in here and I find the yarn workers will help each other any time.

What inspires you to create?

Whether I make the art for myself or someone else to send to their kids or girl I can see the joy in them. They tell me after how much the kid or girl loved it, how it brought smiles to them. After making an ugly mistake, I love I can bring some kind of beauty back to it.

Transformation Statement

I find the opinion of "convicts", "prisoners" is the same as lions. Scary, violent, aggressive. So my goal with the project is to show lions ca be sweet, secure, even cuddly. If I can transform an image of an absolute beast maybe it will at least start a conversation about what a prisoner could be.