Daniel Bolick at Westmoreland Museum of American Art on July 9

From Westmoreland Museum of American Art:

On Thursday, July 9 at 7 PM, regional artist Daniel Bolick has partnered with The Innocence Project, a nationwide effort to exonerate wrongly convicted men and women, to give a face to the injustice sometimes served by our imperfect judicial system. In an expressive style matched only by the dramatic personal journeys of his subjects, Daniel brings to life the stories of ten men whose lives were destroyed and are now restored after spending years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Join the artist as he describes his own personal journey to create these larger than life portraits.

Daniel Bolick is The Westmoreland Museum of American Art’s Exhibition Award winner from the 2007 Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Annual Exhibition.

Daniel's story is pretty crazy - he was sentenced to life in prison but after 18 years serving time was exonerated after being proven innocent. I think his paintings feel quiet, yet expressive in how the paint is applied somewhat loosely. You can tell how closely he studies the anatomy of a face while painting and the expression on each face plays such a big part in portraying each individual personality. You can almost hear what the person-in-the-painting's voice may sound like.

UPDATE (7/9/09): From a reader:

"This might be misleading. The second painting image from the top of your post is of Drew Whitley, who has the crazy story of serving 18 years time for a crime he did not commit, before being exonerated. (Some paintings are of men that served even longer=crazier, eh?). The artist Daniel Bolick himself did not serve time. He was a Pittsburgh Public School teacher for 34 years. (or does that count?) It makes me wonder of the parallel for an artist to transfer from that long career to this incredible show and topic. Looking forward to the talk tonight... Thank you for posting!"

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