Little Soul

Little Soul
Jeffrey A. Isom
Acrylic on Canvas Board, 14x18”, 2024

I did this piece based on the storyline of the opera. Yet I chose to bring a perspective from what I have learned in our Therapeutic programming here in San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.

Many times I have heard that “we are not our crime(s)” or “Hurt people hurt people.” I have heard that babies are not meant to grow up and commit crimes, that their paths are altered due to circumstances beyond their control. But because they have no emotional intelligence, they choose to go down the wrong path. They develop maladaptive thinking and behaviors which, without help to overcome, they grow up committing crime!

Even though what you see may look creepy, much of what you see is symbolic. The baby of course gets knocked off its path by a girl who bullies him in his childhood, and his dad buys him a gun and teaches him how to shoot it. Think how many prisoners are affected like this all over the world.