Michigan inmate Chip Jarrett uses cardboard, soap, paper clips and other found objects to make elaborate and realistic models of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which were included in the American Visionary Art Museum's "Wind in My Hair" show.
In a letter to Lynne Bailey, who collects and sells prison art, Jarrett describes how he came to make his bikes. He was depressed after the death of his mother, he wrote.
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I went to bed that night, dreading the fact that I had to get up for another day of heartbreak."
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Originally Posted by Jetée
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The next morning, I went to dump the trash can from my room, and I had a vision that hit me like a ton of bricks!! I know this sounds crazy, but I couldn't help to wonder why I was throwing away all that good trash. I ... brought the trash back to my room and started to piece together something. Maybe it was just that I was bored and needed something to do, or maybe God planted a seed in me, but the product of the things from that garbage can was something I loved in my life and something that always allowed me to feel free.... the product of my first motorcycle made out of trash with a gas tank made out of a bar of soap!!"
Later, Jarrett wrote, "
When I started making my bikes, I would go through the trash everyday looking for materials and the other guys used to laugh at me and make fun of me, but after seeing that first bike, they stopped making fun of me and started asking if they could get one."
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Visual Architectonics]