The Unexpected Hobby Jodi Arias Has While In Prison

In April 2015, a judge sentenced Jodi Arias to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the brutal murder of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander. She'd stabbed him 27 times, slashed his throat ear to ear, and shot him in the head as he showered in his Mesa, Arizona home in June 2008. Prosecutors said a jealous Arias killed Alexander after he ended their relationship, while she claimed she'd acted in self-defense. Before the murder and subsequent trial that turned into a media circus, Arias had pursued photography.

Today, she spends her days at the Perryville women's state prison in Goodyear, Arizona, working at the library, watching television, reading books, and making art. That's right, Arias is following a long line of other killers who tapped into their creativity after being caught, convicted, and imprisoned. From 1970s serial killer John Wayne Gacy's disturbing clown paintings to Richard Ramirez's satanic drawings, there's a whole category of killer's art. Arias' work is less disturbing, focusing on everything from self-portraits behind bars to celebrities like Frank Sinatra. She even has an Instagram page dedicated to her art and a website where she sells her work.

After her arrest for the murder of Travis Alexander, Jodi Arias remained behind bars awaiting the outcome of her case. "Grappling with what I then thought was the end of my life, I focused very little on creativity," she wrote on her website. But as months turned into years and her case dragged on, she passed her time at a Phoenix, Arizona jail by making portraits of her fellow inmates. "She was this very quiet, soft-spoken, articulate artist who drew a lot," Arias' cellmate at the time, Donavan Bering, told Fox News in 2021. Arias even tattooed Bering and another cellmate with makeshift equipment before Bering broke off the friendship after finding that the killer "had a lot of hate."

Following her conviction, Arias began serving her life prison sentence at Perryville. Her jobs there were doing janitorial work as a porter and laboring at the warehouse for the prison's store. Then she landed a gig as a library aide making 40 cents an hour, a job she still has as of this writing. The prison also assigned her various work programs, including teaching other inmates lessons on social values and substance abuse. Most recently, she began leading a creative writing class. At one point, in 2016, Arias lost her right to have any visitors for 200 days for making a vulgar remark to a correctional officer. In her downtime, Arias paints and draws, mostly illustrations of women, flowers, pets, and some abstract work.

Jodi Arias began making art as a child and took classes in grade school and high school, but she decided against pursuing it at a higher level, afraid of becoming a starving artist. She did work as a photographer, making money by shooting weddings. Even if it wasn't her full-time job, she considered herself an artist, telling ABC News as much. "I am an artist," she said (via 20/20). "I'm a photographer. It started off that way when I was younger. ... Over the years, it developed into something that I became really passionate about," 

She had an eBay account to sell her drawings, but according to Aris, the website shut it down because she was a felon. That's when she launched her own site. While she used to sell her original acrylic paintings for as much as $2,500, these days, the site only offers art prints for around $34 and postcards featuring her work. Arias is no longer taking commissions as she once did, either. The money, according to the site, goes to its maintenance, some goes to fund Arias' appeals, and 10% goes to various non-profits. In 2015, a judge ordered Arias to pay $32,000 to Travis Alexander's family, and as of this writing, it's unclear if that money has been paid. Arias says making art gives her life meaning.  "Every morning, I wake with gratitude and the intent to be mindful ... and to make art," she wrote on her website.