Mary DeWitt Painting
2024 Garden Paintings
2024 Pardon Garden Series I oil on canvas, 36"x 72", 2024
Paulette Carrington and I are collaborating with life-sentenced women at SCI Muncy and SCI Cambridge Springs, the women who are hidden in prison for over forty years. More details to be posted soon.
Tile portraits of Avis Lee and Paulette Carrington were painted and fired in 2017-18. Both were funded by Leeway Foundation.
Hand-made and high-fired tile mural portraits of Betty Heron and Cyd Berger, 2024. Both were sentenced to life in 1982 and 1980 respectively. Severely battered women, they have endured over 40 years of incarceration. Victims' families continue to object to their freedom.
The portrait of Rose Dinkins is on the right. Dinkins has been incarcerated since 1972, 52 years. She describes how she and Sharon Wiggins, left, now deceased, grew up and grew old together in prison. This tile portrait of Rose Dinkins is a duplicate, made in 2002. Funded by Leeway Foundation, the original is installed on 44th and Locust Streets in West Philadelphia.
This portrait was painted in 2003, with narrative added in 2024. Sharon Wiggins, beloved by staff, prisoners and anyone who was fortunate to know her, died in prison after applying for commutation 13 times. A video of her describing her grandmother's memory can be viewed here.
Cyd Berger, hand-made 6"x6" tile, 2022