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Life Line
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Tom E. Schilk
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Mixed media, framed
- Size: 22”W x 18”H original artwork, 29.5”W x 25.5”H framed
“This is my attempt to show how I live my life. It’s both repetitive yet frenetic at the same time. Each column or bar represents one year of my time in prison - count them up - and shows both the constraints of prison and the unpredictable frenzy that takes place within those constraints. At the same time, the work has a certain movement or life despite the severity of the means with which it was made.”
Tom E. Schilk, born in Philadelphia in 1959, is a self-taught artist whose work has been shaped by over two decades of involvement with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Tom is currently incarcerated at SCI-Phoenix. His artistic practice serves as a beacon, illuminating what lies hidden behind walls, both literal and metaphorical, that divide us. His art also functions as a quiet but compelling critique of the systemic incarceration of countless men, women, and children confined to darkened cells across the nation.
