Frank Jones (1900-1969)

Self-taught, African American artist Frank Jones was born in 1900 in Clarksville, Red River County, in the northernmost corner of East Texas. Jones began drawing in 1964 while serving a life sentence for murder at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville. Jones maintained his innocence, but was incarcerated for most of his adult life. His drawing materials were stubs of red and blue accountant's pens and sheets of writing paper from the bin in the prison office where he worked. Later, as his drawings gained attention inside and outside the prison, he was given better paper and new colored pencils. Jones experimented with other colors, but preferred red and blue, which he said represented fire and smoke.