Information and History Regarding the Following Oil Painting:

 

This large 3 x 4 foot oil painting was envisioned as a means to help illustrate and express the terrifying feelings of a mother whose child had been murdered.  Yes, this painting is an original and one of a kind.  However, sadly, the helpless and betrayed feelings depicted in this painting are shared by hundreds of thousands of victims of crime.  As graphically portrayed by the artist, while desperately trying to reach for justice, the victims and families feel as if they have been striped of everything.  They sense they are hopelessly falling and being sucked into a deep hole, an endless vortex.  It takes great courage to be a victim of crime and it’s time that legislators across our Nation become more sensitive to the additional and unnecessary pain and expense caused by the justice system.

 

The artist is Homer Spurlock.  The victim was former mayor of San Juan Capistrano, Collene (Thompson) Campbell.  Collene and her husband Gary’s only son, Scott, was strangled in 1982, his body was thrown from an airplane into the Pacific Ocean and never recovered.  In 1988, while still going through the trials for their son, Scott’s, murder, Collene’s only sibling, her brother, auto racing legend, Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy, were shot to death as they were leaving their home.  An arrest for the Thompson murders was finally made in 2001.  That case is still awaiting trial.  Please note:  These two cases represent over twenty-one straight years (with no break) of the family awaiting murder trials. (How can a family survive under these circumstances?)  It is also interesting to note that the painting was originally inspired while former California Governor Pete Wilson was working with crime victims to pass the most sweeping state justice reform in history.  The successful initiative was referred to as Proposition 115 and was emulated and victorious in many states across the country.