Prison Artwork

A little over two months after my arrest in the U.S. and after my deportation to Germany, at the beginning of the Christmas church service of 2005 in the Stuttgart-Stammheim penitentiary, every inmate received a red rose. I tied mine to a shelf board in my cell so that it would dry. Not quite two months later I drew a picture of a rose with a ball point pen based on my shriveled-up dry rose (unshriveling it in my mind) and sent it to my wife on occasion of the first birthday of our daughter. This was the start of roughly two years of artistic activities behind bars. When my wife finally stated that she had no picture frames left and no spots on the walls where to put them, I figured that my artwork was no longer welcome, so I stopped it. Some of the (color) pencil drawings on paper are reproduced below. They all evince certain memories in me, but since they are all connected to my prison time, I prefer not dwelling on them. But maybe you can enjoy some of this artwork.

These drawing are also featured in higher resolution color prints in my book Resistance Is Obligatory.