Lost Masterpieces

Southern Tasmania suffered a major storm last year, and our suburb was on the front line. Hobart’s highest ever total rainfall for the whole month of May was doubled in less than two hours! Flooding affected hundreds of families and businesses.

We got off lightly, in the scheme of things. An avalanche of water, mud and garden debris found its way into our garage while we slept, leaving two inches of mud, wall to wall.

In the clean-up, a strange parcel emerged. It was quite large, wrapped in several layers of (soggy) cardboard and plastic film.

I discovered that it contained about fifteen paintings. Some were framed, some not, and most were incredibly good! My heart sank as I wondered if these were entries in the national Art From Inside exhibition that I had failed to return years ago.

A series of panicked phone calls to various other States failed to solve the puzzle. No one was missing any paintings. It was only then that I looked more closely at them. All bore the same signature! But who was Jack Parris*? Then I noticed another name on the soggy cardboard wrapping – “Jackass Art”. Feeling that I might be the jackass, I googled the name and … up it came!

One phone call and I was talking to Jack himself. The story quickly unfolded and a few rusty cogs (mine) kicked into alignment. Jack had been an inmate in Hobart Risdon Prison in the mid 1990s. He took up art at the time, as a hastily chosen alternative to spending his time fighting for a space in the only sunny corner of the main yard. His tutor quickly uncovered great talent in Jack, whose ability blossomed rapidly. Jack had amassed quite a collection by the time he was paroled, but had nowhere to store them.

Enter David Steven. David was the State Executive Director for Prison Fellowship in Tasmania at the time. He and his wife, Heather, offered to store the paintings. However, Jack moved to the mainland and David and Heather lost touch with him. When David retired, fifteen years later, Heather asked me to care for the paintings – which is how they ended up in my garage.

Now the story takes an extraordinary turn! At around about the same time as my “discovery”, my wife and I were planning a mainland holiday. Guess what – our tropical destination was only 45 minutes from Jack’s home town AND there was room in our bags for one of the paintings.