Alan Neider

My first encounter with people in need that had a meaningful impact on me was in 1967 when I was in undergraduate school, and I got a job work in occupational therapy at the Long Beach Veterans Hospital teaching art. I had never been that close to people that were severely scared physically and emotionally. I next worked for the Salvation Army in a live-in situation where I and others worked with drug addicted people of all ages. I then worked for two years at a Psychiatric Hospital as an aide.

This background has sensitized me to a certain demographic part of the population that many others rarely see. I am proud that I have given ‘back’ to that population. Much of the therapy in the above mentioned positions I held centered around group therapy. In these session facial expressions told as much about person speaking as their words. I learned over time to read these non-verbal expressions. In 2005 while scrolling the internet for references to paint from I found a trove of pictures of

Women in Prison.

I was immediately touched, stunned, and knew this is what I was looking for. I tried to express the anguish, anger, pity, self-loathing, torment and suffering that I saw in the faces I chose to paint. The wire remains a barrier for the women to hide behind and to be protected from the outside world.

There are nine paintings in the series.
Materials: Oil Paint on Various Fabrics
Size: 40.5 x 23.5 x 3”
Date: 2012
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