Frank Jones’ bio is a tale of existing the best a person can in a not a so good situation.
Frank Jones was from Clarksville, Texas. He was a kind uneducated man who was born with a veiled eye which gave him second sight.
By all accounts, Mr. Jones probably suffered from a learning disability and thus got himself in situations which resulted in him ending up in the Texas Huntsville Prison.
While in the prison, he cleaned up in the accounting office and began to fill his time executing drawings of smiling haints in spiked prison cells, using the old style blue and red accounting pencils . He explained that the friendly haints were welcoming you in to get you in trouble.

At one point his artwork was entered in a prison art show as a joke by one of the prison guards. Mr. Jones took first prize and this led to a lifetime friendship of a gallerist who sold his work, gave him encouragement, and brought him supplies.
He sold his work not only through his new friend, but also at the prison art shows.
His work ranges from the years of 1964-69 when he then sadly passed away while still in prison and others were working on getting him released.
The years since have brought a rarity to the existing pieces and many exhibits of his work in galleries and museums across the world. The earliest of Museum exhibits being Twentieth Century Folk Art in 1970 at the Museum of American Folk Art in NY and the large exhibit of Texas Folk Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art in 1981.
We have been lucky to have a number of wonderful pieces pass through our hands which have never been exhibited and only in the treasured collections of those who met Mr. Jones while he was incarcerated.