Artist: Tyra Patterson
Heavy Is the Head, 2021
Acrylic

Women’s population has increased over 25% since 1980. It’s not because women have become more violent. It’s because women’s responses to abuse and trauma have been criminalized. Even as very few women pose a threat to public safety, society views everyone charged and convicted of a crime as a safety risk.

Despite this staggering trend, prisons continue to be designed for men by men. There has yet to be a gender-responsive approach to incarceration – from the men’s clothing and shoes that are issued to the programs offered, to how healthcare, or the lack thereof, is rendered.

There are biological, social and psychological needs that women have that go unaddressed while incarcerated. Incarceration usually exacerbates existing mental health issues, or they create ones that didn’t already exist. 

Heavy Is the Head is about how our biological and mental makeup as women compounds the weight of incarceration. State and federal prison systems won’t even acknowledge the gender difference, let alone offer helpful training to prison staff. 

Artist Statement

My love for art grew out of the need for acceptance. I began creating images of women that accentuated the features and attributes that often brought us the most ridicule.

I design 3-D art utilizing textures and different materials to emphasize those features. Through art, people find beauty. Although there wasn’t a plethora of supplies available to us in prison, I drew my inspiration from what was around me, broken, benevolent, vulnerable and strong women. I still do. 

In the most dire places and most tragic circumstances, beauty resides. Whether it is broken and discarded people or elements, there is something to behold. For better and for worse, we are conditioned to throw away what fails to serve us.

My art is for everyone. However, if you look at the world and all you see are imperfections, flaws and blemishes in people, you are not my intended audience. To see flaws, you already have some semblance or false depiction of what beauty is. 

For all of these reasons, restoration is my medium.