STATE PEN

17" x 20" mixed media: enamel paint on tin, with chicken wire and wood.


Being Southerners, my folks had a colorful way with language. For example, they referred to prison as "the pen." I later realized it was slang for the the word penitentiary, but throughout my childhood I envisioned "the pen" as a large wire cage where criminals were housed– much like the chicken wire affair shown here on this truck.

 

© 2004 Richard Benbrook