Reflection on Time
Over the past 28 years I have seen that people in prison tend to get some type of clock or timepiece tattoo. I decided to create a timepiece that was an actual clock to represent my experience and outlook on my sentences/time.
The two skulls at the top represent the two life sentences. They are at the top because those two deaths are the most prevalent things in my life. They impact every single aspect of my day-to-day life, my thoughts, my relationships with anyone. I will always be affected by these actions.
The clock face is set in a spiral. The spiral is twisted wire. The hands of the clock are caught up in the energy of the vortex. The actual face is buried under it all in the back. The broken mirror reflects the shattered self-image.
The prison door is made like the old school prison bars. They don’t actually use them anymore, but progress is tricky. People accept what they are shown, even if it isn’t the reality. The hinges on the door are held on with bent and broken nails, cobbled together haphazardly, no assurances, no confidence, no stability.
The books piled up underneath the clock: all the knowledge, wisdom, degrees or titles gathered together and used to prop up and level out a wobbly, crooked old clock.
Inside the clock is a bare lightbulb, cold, stripped of anything that gives it life. It continues on, despite or in spite of. The light, even though it is diminished, is still able to shine brightly on the reality of the system.
The gears all look good but have no function. It’s just for show. The pendulum is run by a simple battery. The key to the door is anchored by chains. The links start out large and get smaller; time gets shorter, the end gets closer. The key spells out death. The ONLY way out.
I hope that this piece will be passed on. Never belonging to any one person, staying from time to time with people that can do some good. Hopefully during my life in prison my art can help someone.
Editor’s Note: Idle is serving two life sentences at Mount Olive Correctional Complex. He donates his art to non profits to further their mission. When reflecting about his life as an artist destined to die in prison, he said, “Don’t get me wrong, I deserved what the Judge gave me... But the way the Judge said, 'You’ll never see outside these prison walls for the rest of your life' struck me somewhere deep. I went back to my cell and thought about my life and how I had never really learned how to be a “good” person on the outside, and that maybe I never would...but then I started asking myself was there anything “good” about me. I thought about the gift I had at being good at art. I decided I would spend the rest of my life using my art for social justice, art that advocates for others - So every time you take my art out of here and it helps someone to feel heard, or helps someone understand, or it helps to create change, I feel like I could look at the Judge and say, 'I have found a way to be a good person.. on the outside...and I have a life outside these walls.'”