MEGAN LEE Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Sunday, February 17, 2008 12:00 am
The dragon's detail makes it come alive.
Piercing eyes stare at onlookers, scales glean in the light, and a forked, snake-like tongue slithers off the page. Giant wings - large enough to carry a beast standing ten feet tall - span almost the entire the canvas.
"This is all in my head," said John Brown, an artist who is scheduled to graduate from an addiction rehabilitation program at the Casper Re-entry Center's Therapeutic Community in March.
The dragon is outlined in pencil and drawn with a thin-tip Sharpie on a stark-white queen-sized bedsheet, Brown's canvas of choice. Even without color, the design of each of the subject's appendages is thorough and accurate.
"Sometimes what I do before I start a picture is grab a chair and sit in front of what I'm going to do, and I just visualize what's going to go on there," Brown said. "It's like when you stop a movie, pause it - I just stop the picture in my head and say, 'Ok, that's going to go there.' It's pretty cool, I think."
Brown's dragon is part of the artist's depiction of his struggle with addiction, his stay in prison, the feeling of being given a second chance at recovering, and being a productive member of society.
"These guys (dragons) would be the ones guarding the castle, and to me that represents them guarding our recovery, and that castle is our center," Brown explained.
This banner is the fifth Brown has helped to create in his 9-month stay at the center. Each group of offenders to graduate from the center creates a banner that represents group members' personal struggles . Themes include Hell vs. Heaven, faith in a higher power ("Life is fragile - handle with prayer"), and strength to conquer addiction.
Brown will create all of the March graduating class' banner artwork. But the entire group of graduates came up with a theme and gave Brown ideas about what they hoped the banner would represent.
Jim Piro, deputy director of the center, said while every resident has a different talent, Brown's is unlike any artistic ability he's seen before.
"Everything is freehand with him. That's what's incredible. He doesn't even have a photo," Piro said. "You don't just learn that. That's a God-given talent."
Piro hopes that after Brown graduates, he'll use his unusual genius and what he learned in the therapeutic community to make a new life for himself in the outside world.
"That's what we do here. We help these guys get their lives together and they do all the work," Piro said. "They work really hard."
While most people assume the center is a prison, Piro said it's a place where residents are encouraged to grow their talents and people skills in a controlled and therapeutic environment.
"There are a couple hundred guys walking around Wyoming right now who went through this program that are back to their families and leading productive lives and working and off the taxpayer's burden," Piro said, "and those are the things people don't hear about these guys."
Brown, who will live with his family on the reservation in Riverton, hopes to sell his artwork as soon as he graduates. His work, and banners from previous graduating classes, will be displayed in the Natrona County Public Library's Crawford Room until Feb. 29.
Contact reporter Megan Lee at (307) 266-0589 or megan.lee@trib.com