Interior drawings art director John Clements created a mesmerizing, if unnerving, piece of art by filming his subjects’ faces and eyes.
Clements, a former artist who spent the last two years living in a prison cell in Colorado, created the installation in partnership with photographer Paul Steeples, whose previous works include a portrait of a man who was shot by a state trooper during a traffic stop.
The painting was commissioned by the artist’s father, who has been incarcerated in Colorado for more than 30 years.
He died in 2015.
The artist explained in a video posted to his Instagram account that he wanted to show that even though people are subject to violence, people still have the capacity to be good people.
“I wanted to capture that innocence and innocence, because I feel like that’s the soul of people,” Clements said in the video.
“It’s not always easy to capture a moment that feels like it could happen to anyone.”