"Art on Trial" explores the little-known world of Court Illustration. Court Illustrators are artists hired by the news media to attend judicial trials and produce hand-drawn illustrations to be featured in broadcast or print news coverage of the case.
My research focused on three case studies: The Central Park Jogger Trial, the Jean Harris Murder Trial, and the Matthew Shepard Murder Trial. For each case study, I analyzed how the court artist depicted the trial, and more importantly, how the visual narrative of the artist compares to the news media coverage of the case and public opinion.
I sought to answer several key questions:
1. What does it mean to appear "guilty" or "innocent," and how do these stereotypes impact due process?
2. How much power does a court artist hold, and what happens what the artist, like a journalist, begins to lose their objectivity?
3. What is the relationship between the public, the news, and the justice system? And more importantly, what does it mean for the news to be the public's window into the courtroom?
