“forged and forgotten”, 3 x 3 inches, acrylic on photopaper.

Frank R. Moore Yuma Prisoner 2502

A typical scam in the west during the early 1900s was the check forgery. A “customer” would go into the bank with a check from an out of town bank, usually claiming it was from New York, or somewhere back east,  and try to cash it. There are other false documents that the forger carries, to make the deal seem real. It is know that letters of introduction were often used to give credence to the forger. An unsuspecting cashier might give them the money, but in Moore’s case the deal went bad. A seasoned clerk recognized that the documents looked suspicious and went to talk to the bank manager. He immediately ran out the back door and to the sheriffs office. They brought Moore into custody where he plead guilty to the charge as subsequently served 18 months in Yuma.

This week I spent some time with artist Christine Cassano working on a collaboration piece that will be shown in April 2014 at the Yuma Fine Arts Association. I had a lot of fun learning how she put together the mold form and how to embed the pieces that will go into the finished product. This piece will pull together elements that I have been working on with the Yuma prisoner series and will be shown during the Yuma centennial celebration along with all the individual portraits and plates.