My work, my roots, are as defense counsel while dragging behind me a fractured belief system from a good southern rearing. I walked the halls of prisons, jails, and courtrooms beside beleaguered clients accused of crimes against the government. Seeing broken offerings of justice, power inequities between people accused and the government, unbridled despotism and hubris finally tore the fabric of my idealistic view of the government. Representing international drug dealers, murderers, and Native Americans for a quarter century wore out any fidelity I may have acquired being raised singly by a military father, and not because of the clients, but because of the system. Painting, manipulating fabric, recording historical transcriptions, gathering archival documents and photos, and collaging: these methods are how I record my lost self.

Artwork by Glynn B. Cartledge