Keffier Savary is a man of many aptitudes: painter, sculptor, and musician. He is also a veteran. He hails from Kingston, Jamaica, but is known to friends as “Miami” after the city that raised him, and where his talents surfaced. While incarcerated at California Health Care Facility, he works as a peer support worker.

“Art was always in me,” said Savary. “I was good in art and music, but music was my true passion.” He said his father was friends with Bob Marley, and his father’s cousin (Oswald Palmer) was one of Marley’s recording engineers.

Savary said his mother sang backup for Dennis Brown, a famous reggae artist and music pioneer in Jamaica. “She tried to steer me away from music,” he said, out of concern about the negativity and unpredictable cadence of success in the music industry. By middle school, he had already learned to play drums and trumpet.

Savary said his mother diverted his attention from music by having him try out for an art program, to which he was accepted. “That’s when I started getting serious,” he said, recalling the days he would watch Bob Ross paint on television on PBS.

In high school, Savary attended New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida, where he quickly absorbed the art all around him. He transferred to another school after his mother feared negative influences after discovering Savary’s stashed-away “Hail Mary” lyrics by rapper Tupac Shakur.

Through his studies, Savary placed in national art competitions, received scholarships, and was commissioned to paint portraits and murals.

“I didn’t want to go to college right away,” said Savary, but his mother pushed him. “I decided to go to California to get away.”

Savary landed at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. “I was the first freshman in the school’s history to get my artwork in the school’s gallery,” he said.

The events of September 11, 2001, however, quickly changed Savary’s path. Filled with a sense of patriotism, he joined the U.S. Air Force. “Even though I wasn’t in the military for art, when they found out about my skills, they had me build [a] statue.” He was commissioned to create a life-sized welded statue of a pilot made of sheet metal — now permanently on display at Heritage Park in Eielson Air Force Base, Fairbanks, Alaska.

“While in the military, I started buying recording equipment,” said Savary. After an honorable discharge, he opened a studio and began recording music. “My true love was music. I was up-and-coming.”

Savary has served 14 years on a 77-year-to-life sentence. Ironically, he said prison brought him full circle — back to art. He said his time inside has reignited his creative fire, despite institutional setbacks, like CHCF’s rejection of his art supplies from approved vendors.

Acrylics are Savary’s primary medium, but he is adept in oil painting, watercolor, pastel, graphite, and airbrushing. His portrait work is especially striking, layered with color perception that others do not often see. Some of his influences are Ernie Barnes, Salvador Dali, and Kehinde Wiley, but he still reveres Bob Ross, “the voice of calm from his childhood,” Savary said.

Savary has contributed his art to the personal collections of famous people, and recently donated a portrait of Alec and Kaleb — two patients and spokespeople for Shriner’s Children’s’ Hospital — back to the facility.

Savary hopes to transfer to San Quentin and take advantage of its many programs — art, audio engineering, and self-help groups, to name a few.