Death Row Artist William Noguera – Visions From the Pen(itentiary)

Artistic expression has been the savior for William Noguera, a San Quentin resident and current California death row inmate who creates thought-provoking and critically acclaimed pen-and-ink drawings from his 4-foot cell. x10′. Incarcerated since 1983, the story of William Noguera is that of a man who has found a way to keep hope alive in the face of injustice, brutality and wrongful imprisonment.

Noguera sits on death row in California for the death of his ex-girlfriend’s mother. He is currently awaiting the results of the two decades long appeals process; His case and his conviction have been described by many as “a travesty of justice.”

During his first year in prison and an enforced 27-day stay in solitary confinement, Noguera began drawing on the walls of his cell. Since then, without education or training, he has continued to create art in a pointillist style that he describes as “ink-stippled monochrome neo-cubism.” Hundreds of thousands of individual points are placed, evidencing images of the initial reality; each piece requires 3-6 months to complete.

In 2008, Noguera told the San Francisco Chronicle: “Art is not a luxury for me, it’s a necessity…as soon as I pick up the pen, I’m out of this place. Art gives me the freedom I crave. I love it.” The only thing I have is my imagination. For me, art is about childhood, when things were simple and innocent. The man in front of you is just a vehicle for that child.” Sometimes they drive him to work for up to 12 hours a day, this is his only way of functioning in a world surrounded by rapists, murderers and child molesters. He’s still paying off a debt some 25 years later for a brief moment of adolescent rage.

Death row inmates often find religion a comfort, but William has found his salvation in art, a monk’s routine that keeps him away from crime, drugs and gang affiliation, common plagues of prison life. Each carefully placed drop of ink transports him to another time and place, a reminder of the boy he was in the free world and the man he has become.