In seventeen years as a Michigan Department of Corrections employee, I have yet to witness any coworkers placing prisoners—no strike that—inmates—no strike that too—residents—let me start over: I don’t know of any coworkers that’ve hung residents on meat hooks. Oh sure, I’ve been on nuts & butts duty; someone’s got to make sure contraband isn’t passed from one resident to another before the keester checkpoint; hey, why not us teachers?
I do remember a certain resident, Prisoner... oops...Resident W., a fairly decent artist with his own art studio in the school building, throwing a fit when I wouldn’t let him take his last GED Exam. “You’re not ready,” I said. At that point I understood why he came back to prison; he was a rapist who didn’t understand the concept of “no.” He stormed out of my classroom in a tantrum.
Resident W. maxed out a few years back (doesn’t have to report to anyone) and found a nice place to live: an upscale condominium, living with a female art dealer who supports his artistic talent. It wasn’t long after that that the residents (this time I mean real residents) of the condo association distributed flyers regarding Ex-Felon W.: “Do you know a convicted rapist resides here?”
Maybe those meat hooks come from the real world, where we MDOC employees aren’t there to protect ex-convicts, ex-felons, ex-prisoners, ex-whatever-you-want-to-call-them. I say this without being mean spirited. I say this, knowing everyone deserves some kind of chance to do what’s right. And yes, I don’t have a problem with PCAP supporting artwork; I have a problem with the message from a majority of the artists.
Footnote: The male artist depicted here, the man with the walrus mustache who never picked up a paint brush until the age of forty-one, painted strange pink people prior to his release from my facility.
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12 comments:
Can you say, "Glover Manual?" Some guidelines are a true pain in the ass.
Served life for 26 years? Hum.
I have no problem supporting art for inmates either. I do not support the whine that seems to be the focus of the dialog in the video.
There is a reason beyond art that puts a person in prison. It would seem that these people wish me to believe the reason they are/were incarcerated was for their art. Talk about spin.
I've met the University of Michigan Professor who organizes this show. He and his volunteers donate their time visiting Michigan prisons searching for art work. It does give the prisoners an outlet and a chance to make a few dollars. The problem is finding artwork with a more universal theme instead of the usual message: how poorly prisoners are treated. I think this is why painting of "Pink People" become popular, or real nature scenes minus the concertina-wired fences.
Yes Charles, life doesn't exactly mean life.
Well, in France, there was "St." John Genet, convicted theif and fellateror.
Wrote a masterpiece called "Our Lady of the flowers."
Jesus, if I could write tha well, I would go down on somebody too...Probably Brad Pitt, if he'd give me a crack at Angelina Jolie. :)
That's some creepy shit, and the happy little soundtrack makes it all the creepier . . .
Thank you for the support. I did not get to travel, but did see "The Big Dig". It was an awesome undertaking! No sign of Boston Coolers though, and only was served beans, once!! And definately no tea. However, beer and wine flowed as freely as the Charles!!! xo
I'll have to check this out from home later (YouTube rarely works at work,) but I already suspect I'm going to agree w/the walking man on this one.
Not to mention, where's the "support" for we artists who've managed *gasp* to stay on the straight & narrow our whole lives?
It's a little creepy! That's something coming from me. :)
I don't know, maybe I'm just a damn liberal, but isn't it a GOOD thing that inmates are given an outlet regardless of what they decide to draw?
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