Commissioned by the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and the Connelly Foundation, and in partnership with the Barnes Foundation, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, City of Philadelphia, The Guild of the Restorative Justice Program, and SCI Graterford  •  acrylic and polytab, 2018

Philadelphia is the global leader in juvenile life sentencing without parole, and this mural looks candidly at the devastating effect on individual lives through the lens of traditional still-life painting. Working with instructors from the Barnes Foundation (Bill Perthes and Christine Stoughton), we worked with Restorative Justice Guild and SCI Graterford workshop participants—developing the mural design after a poignant art history workshop on the concept of the still life in the context of the criminal justice system. Traditional “vanitas” or still-life paintings symbolize ephemerality and futility, and after viewing many of these artworks in the Barnes collection, participants struck up a conversation on stolen time and frozen potential.

Still Life invites viewers to slow down and contemplate temporality, incarceration, and freedom, while challenging mainstream ideas about who gets to make and experience fine art.