Reply ID: 3cie

The Novelist Portent
Johnny E. Mahaffey
November 27, 2018

Johnny E. Mahaffey
BRCI—SCDC# 323863
4460 Broad River Rd.
Columbia, SC 29210-4012

To carmilliasDamask:

Thank you. I was particularly partial to this work. I held on to it for many years. But then, when Jaime Beth found out I had a few unsold works in my portfolio, she asked for this one. I had told her it was one that I was proud of. I made sure to post it, so that the work can be enjoyed by others. Today, the work has a home on Jaime Beth's bedroom wall, framed, and safe from this place I am in now.

My work is actually seeing a spike now. I've been producing a few paintings each week (mixed media: graphite, watercolor, pastel, and colored pencil, with a touch of ink). This is not something I learned in prison. I have done art my whole life, even in elementary school. Things I just slapped together would get attention from all over the state and outside of it. Funny thing is my art "teachers" never seemed to like me. Thinking I wasn't trying. It was as if they took offense to me just doing what came naturally.

The piece you see here is actually a practice drawing for a much larger piece I plan to do that will be museum quality. I wold like to have it auctioned off or taken by a museum with the proceeds going to battered and abused women and children. Any takers, let me know.

The prison does let us sell our work, but they have to approve each sale individually and they take a cut of the profits for "room and board", and some for Victims Witness. Some also goes to the prison's recreational fund that supports the hobby craft program. When I have a buyer who has requested me to make something, or for a piece I've made, there's a form I have to get signed by the hobby craft coordinator (who also has the warden over programs sign it) and then the sale can happen. Then I have permission to mail out the artwork.

"L'amoure rayonne dans ses yeux", however, was a gift, so none of that red tape was required. There was no money involved. Just a lot of happy viewers.

Again, thank you for your comment.

M