From Ex-Con to Artist

Eppiphonio "Epi" Lopez is having his first-ever art show this weekend at the Sidearm Gallery in New Orleans. But Lopez didn't hone his skills in art school -- he did it in prison. He was convicted of hauling 400 pounds of marijuana from Mexico to Louisiana.

At nearly six feet and over 300 pounds, with a shaved head and a goatee, Epi would fit the image of Mexican drug smuggler perfectly if it weren't for one thing: The old lady reading glasses that he wears. He blames his poor eyesight on years of trying to draw at night in prison.

"One time I was drawing, sitting on my rack -- 'rack' is your bunk, they call 'em racks -- and right in front of me, there was an area where everybody would come to fight. Thats where you fight, in the back of the dorm where the cameras won't see you. If you're a coward you don't go back there, you know?

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[Photo: David Weinberg]