I started drawing when I was in jail awaiting trial in Oregon the year was 1973.  I arrived in Oregon State penitentiary in 1974 I pursued art with a passion.  While in prison I took some courses from a local college there called Chemeketa Community College.  The main reason I did that was so I could take some college art classes.  I did quite well in them, I loved art history and became so good at it that one of my teachers said to me one day “you should be teaching this class” that was quite a compliment. I used to draw on average 10 to 12 hours a day every day.  I could not get enough, I would draw until I was forced to stop because they would turn the lights out at 11:00 PM.  When you draw that many hours a day year after year with a burning passion you can’t help but become good at it.

The following artwork will attest to my ability to pull scenes out of the Bible using my artistic license and portray them in radical never before seen visions using various media. Some of the following drawings were created in prison using various colored ball-point pens on both rough and smooth paper. Some of the works that were created in prison have been scanned and manipulated using digital technology to enhance the colors, add borders, text etc. Currently my new work is all digital.  What a pleasure it is working with Corel Painter X it’s truly amazing the things you can do with that program and the speed at which you can work.  Anyhow I hope you enjoy my work, copies of all these pieces can be purchased by going to our Store page and clicking on the appropriate drawing and following the on-screen instructions.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Kevin and Bette Hammang    5/26/2009