Tyler Keup’s world is one of concrete walls, heavy metal doors with thick glass windows, tall metal fences,  razor wire and guard towers. Commonly known as the Lincoln Correctional Center, it’s a place that offers its inhabitants few chances for self-expression. But Keup, 21, has found one: drawing.

“It sometimes almost feels as though, ever since I’ve been incarcerated, there’s no way for me to say, ‘Hey, this is not who I am,’” said Keup, who chafes when referred to as an inmate.

“Art is a way for me to say that, to be able to express myself,” he said in an interview last week.

Keup was 17 when he started serving a prison sentence of 30 to 60 years for murder. He began sketching with ballpoint pens shortly after his arrest in 2000.

“A lot of nights I’m up until 2 or 3 in the morning, drawing,” he said. “I don’t even keep track of the hours.”

But Keup’s creativity, and his desire to share his work with his family, have run afoul of prison rules  forbidding the creation or mailing of artwork depicting  uncovered female breasts, “lewd, lascivious” images or images of illegal drugs.

In March, Keup tried to mail two drawings to his parents in North Platte: a collage in the form of a crucifix and the image of a bare-chested young woman. Among the images on the crucifix was a marijuana leaf.

After prison officials refused to let Keup mail the drawings, he appealed to Correctional Services Director Frank Hopkins. In May, Hopkins agreed with LCC officials.

In a lawsuit filed Aug. 23 in U.S. District Court in Lincoln, Keup argued the prison rules infringed on his First Amendment right to free speech.

Neither drawing, he wrote in the petition, advocates illegal acts.

“To me, they should change (the rules) to ban anything that promotes violent sex or illegal drug use,” Keup said in the interview. “I’m not promoting this at all.”

Keup said he sketched the woman for an older brother.

“Why can’t I draw nudity?” he “What’s the substantial harm for the prison?”

The crucifix, he said, includes images representing his life. The marijuana leaf, eight ball and dice depict foolish risks he once took.

Other images depict loved ones who have died since Keup has been behind bars.

And a young woman with a halo at the top of the cross represents Maricela Martinez, the woman Keup fatally shot in August 2000, he said.

Keup, who maintains he did not intend to kill the woman, nevertheless refers to her as his “victim.”

A Lincoln County District judge convicted him of second-degree murder after a bench trial that lasted less than seven hours. Keup will become eligible for parole in 2015.

“I’m truly remorseful for my crime,” he said. “Art is a way for me to cope.

“My drawings,” he continued later, “do not constitute any threat, especially since I’m trying to send them out of the institution.”

LCC Warden Dennis Bakewell said he was not familiar with Keup’s drawings, but said the prison has a strong interest in curbing activities that could pose a threat to the safety and “good order” of the facility.

For example, Bakewell said, the prison prohibits artwork that could become templates for tattoos. Mostly for health reasons, he said, the department does not want inmates tattooing each other.

“It (banned art) could depend a lot on what’s drawn,” he said. “What is, or is not art, I’m not in a position to say that … The issue (often) is tattoos.”

Michael Fenner, a Creighton University law professor, said the tattoo explanation, at least in Keup’s case, makes little sense.

“That seems to break down, because he’s (trying to send) it out,” Fenner said.

He said a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling dealing with equal protection could help Keup’s case. The court said in a California case that prison officials there could not segregate inmates by race during the prisoner intake process.

Fenner said officials were using the segregation to curb gang violence. But the court, in a 5-3 decision, said the same constitutional right that prohibits racial segregation in civil society also applies to prisons.

“Equal protection is equal protection, whether you’re in or out of prison,” Fenner said.

With the ruling, he said, prisons must show a “compelling state interest” behind particular policies.

“Before that I’d say (Keup) didn’t have a chance,” he said. “After it, yes.”

And, he said, “A drawing of a woman with bare breasts, as long as it’s not harassing anyone … I don’t see what it has to do with prison security.”

Keup agreed.

“It seems arbitrary,” he said. “They can pretty much ban any art.

“My ideas are inspired by my past. It upsets me I can’t draw this for my family.”

Reach Butch Mabin at 473-7234 or at bmabin@journalstar.com.