She was convicted of criminally negligent homicide after killing a man who abused her and imprisoned in Bedford Hills Correctional Prison from 1971 to 1973.

It was during her incarceration that she began to draw on the back of any paper she found to distance herself from the inmates who she called the "bad girls.

While incarcerated, Nathaniel-Walker's work attracted the attention of Elizabeth Bayley, one of Inez' prison teachers, who provided her with drawing paper, notebooks, and pencils.

Mrs. Bayley also showed the drawings to a local folk art dealer, who later received the artist's sketch books.

The works, executed in color pen, pencil, and ink, are characterized by a great profusion of embellished detail.