N.C. Department of
Correction--Correction News--July 1997
LOUISBURG CHIEF PROBATION
OFFICER HAS EYE FOR ART
If you go into the bathroom of
Brothers Pizza on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, you’ll
find a N.C. State Wolf painted on the tile wall. If you go to the
state library, you can check out a slide show on the history of
the rose. And if you go to the Governor’s Mansion,
you’ll find some hand painted coffee mugs.
| Each is the handiwork
of Jane Edwards, the chief probation and parole officer
in Franklin County. She is a busy woman who won the
Franklin County Artist of the Year Award in 1996 and just
received the state probation and parole
association’s top award at it’s convention in
May. Edwards
joined the department as a probation officer in 1973 to
help administer a testing program. When it was
discontinued, she was assigned to Henderson to supervise
female probationers in a five-county area. Eventually,
she was assigned to Franklin County and became the chief
probation and parole officer there in 1989.
"My most successful case was a
young man who was overweight and a drunk. His brothers
and sisters were doctors and lawyers. He hadn’t been
successful and was convinced he wasn’t very bright," Edwards said. "I took him to Voc Rehab where
they tested him and found that he was actually very
smart. They showed him the results and it turned his life
around. He stopped drinking, lost weight and went to
college."
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 |
"I’ve always believed that if you
can help people believe in themselves, you could help them change
their lives," she said.
Edwards has always been active
in professional organizations and communications. She started the
first correction association newsletter in North Carolina, worked
on the state employee association newsletter and helped start a
newsletter for the state probation and parole association.
Always busy, Edwards began
china painting after a series of knee operations. "I liked sculpture and watercolor painting, but
with my knees I had to find something I could do sitting down," she said. "I’d work all day, go home and work on my
china painting all evening and fire up the kiln filled with china
when I got ready to go to bed. I accumulated so much, I had to
begin selling some of it and then just began going to shows." Now she teaches a class on china painting at
Vance-Granville Community College.
China painting can be done on
inexpensive or very expensive china. Paint is applied thinly with
a soft brush. The paint doesn’t dry, until it is fired in a
kiln. Out of the oven, the china is sanded and cleaned with
alcohol. The process is generally done three times and by
building color on color, the painting appears iridescent.
Edwards who is retiring says
she will continue teaching china painting, remain active in
professional associations and hopes to re-establish the rose
garden at her home.
NC DOC Correction
News- July 1997
NC Department of Correction News
NC
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