Village Voice Prisoner Rights

I was recently VERY lucky to be selected as cover artist for a Village Voice article; I always enjoy working with the weekly city papers, and it is a thrill to do so for NYC!

The article was a "then and now" about Dee Farmer, a transgender inmate who's famous court case garnered a ruling for prisoners to be treated with basic human rights. This came about after Dee's suffering a traumatic rape while imprisoned due to guards irresponsible treatment. Since that time, she has continued advocating for prisoner rights; she often acts for other suffering inmates by representing them in court along with her own cases seeking fair treatment for prisoners. But despite all these generous acts, it still needs to be noted that Dee has stolen from and hurt people resulting in her repeated incarcerations. She even once faked her own death!

After speaking with Tom the AD, we decided to try for imagery that reflected a juxtapostion of her good/bad selves.

Sketches (click to enlarge):

There was also a fourth sketch that I would like to possibly explore in a future piece. It was a tangent from the theme we were exploring, and it didn't really fit the article so I won't show it here. Sorry!

Final Sketch:

Final Cover:

I decided to flip the fist to reflect her rebellious nature; I felt a movement toward the left was more of an act of defiance in our Western manner of reading? Also, my initial pass of Dee's nail was too subtle; Tom had me kick it up to a brighter neon pink! I was worried the nail polish would be offensive and a bit of a stereotype toward transgenders; but in the article, Dee actually speaks about the difficulties she faces trying to get makeup in a male prison. To be clear, psysiologically Dee is defined as male hence her placement in such a place; we describe her as "she" out of respect to her wishes and rights.

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy the Day,
Chris