NORFOLK, Va. — A unique exhibit has opened at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, featuring the intricate and skillful work of some local artists.
They were very limited in what materials they could use, but the outcome is incredible.
"Art is for everyone and certainly there are no limits on who can produce art," Erik Neil, the museum's director, said.
The great halls of the Chrysler Museum give all walks of life access to some of the world's most famous artists.
"Art is a practice of self-awareness in humans," Charles Rasputin, a local artist who helped develop the NEON District, said. "We're making a thing so that other folks can see it, enjoy it, critique it."
In one exhibit there, the names alongside the pieces are only well known to a few.
"Maybe producing art is a way to think about their life, their situation," Neil said.
The works are drawn and crafted in detail. They're rather simple, yet stunning.
The artists, like William Overton, didn't have much to work with to make them. And that wasn't by choice, per se. They're inmates.
The crowd of law enforcement officers in uniform drawn to the exhibit sheds a light on who is behind the work, because the artists themselves, are absent.
Overton, like many of the others, is still in jail.
"William will hopefully be able to actually come and experience it once he's free and see his work in the context of all these other works," Rasputin said. "I make art mostly for myself. Because it's therapeutic, I enjoy it, and I'm kind of good at it," Overton, 39, said during an interview at the jail Friday.
His passion started long before coming to the Chesapeake Jail and he plans to pursue it on the outside.
"I think that getting... that having success outside my circle of that I'm already related to and close to would definitely be an encouragement and a motivator to keep me from going back to poor decision making," he said.
"I think it's often easy...to create something out of your imagination," Rasputin said, who received a letter from Overton expressing his interest in art, "But it's not that easy to create that hope that we need to keep ourselves moving forward."
Rasputin called Overton immensely talented and hopes he will continue on his path after he gets out.
"I just felt moved to be a part of it and come show support," Rasputin said at the exhibit.
Overton said he is expected to be released just days before the exhibit ends in February.
For more details on 'Beyond the Block' at the Chrysler Museum and other locals museums, go here.