Hicksville resident Kirk Larsen has been an artist since he was a child and has had an illustrious career in the art field. Little did he think that his artistic endeavors would land him in jail; however, that’s exactly what happened last week when he participated in an ambitious new project at the Suffolk County Correctional Facility in Riverhead designed to help young offenders get on the straight and narrow through art.
Splashes of Hope is a nonprofit organization based in Huntington founded in 1996 whose mission is to paint murals in hospitals and social service centers, to promote healing and uplift the families, patients, and staff, according to Diana Fogarty, Director of Operations and muralist.
“It’s important to direct their imaginations away from their current environment in hospitals and medical facilities,” she said. “As of today, we have created murals–or “splashed”–in over 30 states and four countries.”
Commissioning Kirk Larsen to work on a mural at the Riverhead jail represents a new departure for Splashes of Hope; this marks the first occasion that they have brought their ideology into a prison setting. Initially, a philanthropist named Theresa Santmann sponsored Splashes to install a mural (created off-site) in the visitor’s area of the prison; positive response to that encouraged Splashes to take things a step further by spearheading a new project involving the inmates themselves, Fogarty said.
“Theresa Santmann wanted to expand the scope of what we had done at the jail, to reach out to these young men and women who are in a program called the Youth Tier Initiative,” she said. “Kirk Larsen was a great fit, and we outsourced the project to him for a number of reasons, the main one being that his personality fit well with the project. The point was to reach the inmates, to teach them what it’s like to do service as artists and provide a service through that particular skill.”
The Youth Tier Initiative at the Riverhead Correctional Facility offers young offenders ages 16 to 21 the chance to break the patters of behavior that lead to becoming repeat offenders by offering General Equivalency Diplomas and teaching life skills and communication techniques needed in the real world. The numbers don’t lie: fewer than 12 percent of successful participants in the Youth Tier Initiative ever return to see the inside of a jail cell ever again.
Larsen said that Splashes of Hope had sought him out to head up the new mural project, and it was an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up.
“There was an idea about working with the inmates directly, and imparting to them the benefits of producing art…working on something that benefits the individual, and in the process, lifting them up,” he said. “The staff at Splashes felt to do that, they needed someone with a particular set of skills, somebody with a paint brush, and a very good understanding of the logistical, emotional, and psychological parameters needed.”
With the participation of 10 inmates and over the course of several days in September and October, Larsen and his protégés created an elaborate 85-foot-long mural inside the jail facility on a wall opposite the medical area and the chapel. The enormous project took into account the features of the hallway in which it was situated, he said, and was designed to have a calming, outdoor theme.
“I designed the basic layout of the mural—imagery, symbolism, and color usage—and I asked the inmates to come up with ideas that they would like to have included,” Larsen said. “The significance of this hallway is that the entire population has access to it, so I kept things in the design like humans and animals to a minimum. Instead, I incorporated things already present in the hallway, such as windows and even a fire hose, into the design. I also included a bridge, trees, clouds, and water with sailboats. The idea was to make the inmates want to be outside, and want to make a better choice in order to do so.”
Larsen said that the experience of working with the inmates in the program was fascinating; he notes that he had asked them to trust him in a fashion similar to the relationship between Mr. Miyagi and Daniel in the film The Karate Kid, where lessons were imparted from master to learner in sometimes not-so-obvious ways.
“For example, I would have one of the kids paint a fence but later, they find out that they’ve been learning skills that are applicable beyond their perspective,” he said. “Working with the kids was certainly the most challenging teaching and mentoring situation I’ve encountered in my life so far…but also one of the most rewarding.”
The project will also be highlighted on the small screen. The MSNBC documentary television show Lockup filmed for several weeks at the prison, including the period of time that Larsen and the inmates were working on the mural; their efforts are slated to be showcased in an upcoming episode of the show.
