Some good news from the YOU ARE LOVED Mural Project by Alex Cook

This is a special guest post and update by artist Alex Cook, painter of the YOU ARE LOVED mural series who we’ve featured before on Light in Prison.

I have painted three murals in prisons: at the central men’s jail in Santa Ana California, Oak Creek Correctional Facility for Girls in Albany, Oregon, and Bridgewater State Hospital in Bridgewater Massachusetts.

It’s a particularly special feeling to bring something so beautiful, light, and inspired into a prison. In prison there is so much hunger for lightness, hope and color. It’s a pretty amazing opportunity to bring people something that so easily feeds and delights them. To do it successfully it’s important to have it very clear in thought  that this art, this activity, this togetherness, is the action of God. And it can reach and speak to the pure, good identity of each person in that prison.

The particular joy, to me, of doing artwork in a prison is that it invariably brings out joy, smiles, creativity and all kinds of beautiful things that most of the time seem absent in a present scenario. I love to remember that joy is right underneath the surface and it can be brought out by expressing love confidently and openly.

In the same way, it’s especially powerful to boldly paint the message “you are loved” in a prison. The human appearance of prison is that there has been an enormous lack of love. So to present this message in a prison has a beautiful, spiritual, defiant quality to it. Implicitly it points us to the spiritual nature of each individual. It points away from tragic human histories, mistakes, and regret, and shares the idea that that love is ever present, here and now.

You can also listen to an in-depth interview with Alex on “Love Extremist Radio” here.

View images of Alex’s artwork:

Inmate working on a YOU ARE LOVED at Bridgewater State Hospital

You are loved and mandala mural at Bridgewater State Hospital

You are loved mural at Bridgewater State Hospital

Mandala mural at Bridgewater State Hospital

Ascending birds at Bridgewater State Hospital

You are needed at Oak Creek correctional facility

You are needed and tree of life at Oak Creek correctional facility

You are loved at men’s central jail, Santa Ana California

Girls working on you are needed, Oak Creek correctional facility

Girls working on tree of life at Oak Creek correctional facility

Like our work and want to support Light in Prison? Please consider making a one-time or recurring donation to help fund future stories and videos like this.