To accurately create art intended to humanize the United States prison system, embroiderer Roz Ritter went to jail.
The Berkeley resident didn’t spend any time behind bars, but she did spend some time at San Quentin State Prison, in a class that helped male prisoners bond with their children through reading.
She and fellow artist Susan Doyle were warned not to expect any reaction from the inmates during their two visits in 2008. But after Ritter showed the group her father’s shirt — one of several family heirlooms that inspire her art — she got a reaction, and something more.
“I received copies of letters from the inmates’ children talking about their families,” said Ritter, who is Jewish. “It was so moving to see my artwork touch people who are not touched that often.”
Ritter and Doyle embroidered the letters onto prison-issued handkerchiefs to create “Conversations,” one of the pieces showcased in “1 in 100: America Behind Bars,” an exhibit created by the Plexus Art Group that explores incarceration and how it affects not only the prisoners, but their families and communities.
The exhibit opens with a free reception beginning at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10 at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center on the Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life in Palo Alto.
Members of the Plexus Art Group, a cohort of Jewish and non-Jewish Bay Area artists who work in varied media, will be on hand, as will Ron Arons, a nationally known scholar and author of “The Jews of Sing-Sing: Gotham, Gangsters and Gonuvim.”
The exhibit has shown once before, in San Rafael, and the Plexus group hopes to have additional showings after the run at the JCC.
“It’s important to bring contemporary and stimulating issues to our community,” said Sally Oken, the Oshman Family JCC’s cultural arts director. “The statistic [in the United States] that one adult in 100 is behind bars is staggering. Many Jewish people might not be touched directly by the prison system, but Jews go to jail, too.”
Karen Balos, who spent three days in an Ohio penitentiary for protesting during the civil rights movement in 1963, is one of them.
Then a student at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Balos recalled being “put in a cage” before she was booked and was “appalled” by the treatment she received. After staging a hunger strike in jail, Balos and fellow classmates were released on their own recognizance.
“We were an anomaly to [other inmates],” said Balos, who lives in Oakland. “They were so terrified that they took our food and flushed it down the toilet, rather than have the guards know what we were doing. [The other prisoners] didn’t understand us, but they didn’t want to get in trouble too.”
Balos, one of the founding members of the Plexus Art Group, will showcase “Wounded Goddess” in the JCC show. A combination of acrylic paint and fiber cross-stitching on canvas, the piece depicts a woman trying to “bust out” of the gender role constraints that women often are forced to assume, she said.
For viewers of the exhibit who find it difficult to identify with being imprisoned, Balos has a suggestion.
“I imagine that a lot of people have never been to prison, but we’ve all experienced some form of imprisonment,” she said. “[Exhibit-goers] should examine the issues of incarceration, with the intention of making it personal to their lives.”
In essence, that is the main goal of the Plexus Art Group. The 14 Bay Area artists — many of whom met during a fiber sculpture class at the College of Marin about 10 years ago — create works that address social and political issues.
Plexus member Stuart Wagner knows several people who have been incarcerated. A 3-D artist, he will contribute to the exhibit a piece called “Diminished,” which captures an inmate’s struggle to assimilate into society and also raises questions about rehabilitation and recidivism.
“I hope our exhibit will call attention to the problems in the prison system,” said Wagner, of Marin. “It’s not something we talk very much about, but it’s integral to our society.”
“1 in 100: America Behind Bars” runs from Sunday, Jan. 10, to Jan. 23 at the Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto. The opening reception is 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10, in room E104. Admission to both is free and open to the public. Information: www.paloaltojcc.org.