Thomas Schilk and Cody Stuhltrager
Boxed, 2015
Acrylic on Cloth
36 x 28"

About the artwork

I, Cody Stuhltrager, am a formerly incarcerated artist from southeastern Pennsylvania. I work predominantly with Mural Arts Philadelphia as a muralist, curator, and art handler.

My friend Thomas Schilk made this piece a few years back, as part of a 2015 Mural Arts project - "Labyrinth" by Sam Durant. Tom is the middle of his 40th year of incarceration. He is sentenced to Life Without Parole in Pennsylvania. In spite of his distant past, Tom is a good man and a good friend, and I try to be a good friend to him. One of the ways I do that is by helping him get his powerful art out into the free world.

Considering that this piece was originally exhibited on a structure of chain-link fence, I thought it would be right to construct a frame of the same material.

Bio

Thomas Schilk was born in Philadelphia in 1959. A self taught artist, Tom has been a member of The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program for more than 20 years. Tom has exhibited in many venues, including The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Magic Gardens, The Theater of The Living Arts and various Universities. Tom currently lives and works at SCI-Phoenix.