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Thread: Death Row Artwork/Poetry/Books

  1. #41
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    Online auction plans to sell dragging-death memorabilia

    An online auction house's decision to sell memorabilia related to the 1998 dragging death of Jasper man James Byrd Jr. is upsetting at least one of his relatives.

    On June 7, 1998, three purported white supremacists in the East Texas town chained 49-year-old Byrd's ankles to the back of their pickup and dragged him about three miles. His head, right shoulder and right arm were severed when his body hit a culvert. They dumped the rest of his body at a black church cemetery.

    Murderauction.com lists four items with a connection to John W. King or Shawn A. Berry, two of three men convicted in Bird's death. King, 39, is on death row at the prison system's Polunsky Unit near Livingston. Berry, also 39, is serving a life sentence at the Ramsey Unit in Rosharon. The third man, Lawrence A. Brewer, was executed in September 2011 at age 44.

    The thought of anyone profiting from such a heinous crime is distressing to Byrd's family, said Shelly Mullins, one of his relatives.

    In an email to the Chronicle, Mullins called the practice of selling items associated with convicted killers is "despicable."

    "We all try to move on with our lives, but that's proven rather difficult, especially when the men responsible for James' death make headlines for selling their letters and possessions to these true crime websites to make money," Mullins wrote.

    Andy Kahan, director of Houston's Crime Victims office who has long fought against so-called "murderabilia," said it's unclear whether King, or any inmate, profits from the auction of his possessions, since a third-party seller handles the transaction.

    "The last that I know, years back a dealer promised (King) magazine subscriptions in return for personalized items," Kahan said Wednesday.

    Visits 'as a friend'

    William Harder, murderauction.com promoter, said none of the inmates represented on his website gets paid from the sales. More than 90 percent of the listed items are ones he has purchased from other collectors.

    "I don't pay inmates for art work (they give me)," Harder said. "Items given as gifts are kept as gifts. It usually goes on my wall."

    Harder was in Texas on Wednesday, part of a two-week trip that includes some stops at prisons, not to collect items to sell but to visit inmates "as a friend," he said.

    "The website has nothing to do with my visits," he said.

    While many people are disgusted by the practice of selling crime-related items, Harder said people find a lot of other things disgusting, too, such as fur coats and the kosher slaughter of animals.

    "I didn't create the interest in John King or (California convicted killer) Charles Manson," he said. "It's the press that sensationalizes cases and creates public interest."

    People who are offended by his website should not visit it, he said.

    "As a matter of fact, I ask them not to," Harder said. "It's un-American to tell me I cannot sell my personal property, period. It's real easy to be mad at it and hate it, but if you go down to brass tacks, it's what this country is about."

    'Crossing a line'

    In April 2010, murderauction.com advertised a small bag of dirt from Byrd's grave site as well as photos of the site and road.

    At the time, Byrd's sister Louvon Harris, of Houston, said she wanted the website shut down.

    "People out there continue to stir up things and make a mockery out of (his death) and do not take it seriously," Harris told the Chronicle in 2010. "He should be resting in peace. It's very selfish and disrespectful of the family."

    Harder said Wednesday he no longer includes items from grave sites on the website.

    "I figured that was crossing a line," he said.

    Nor does he post photos of victims' children or offenders' children, Harder said.

    Texas is one of eight states that prohibit inmates from profiting from murderabilia sales, but it's hard to enforce when the transaction is processed by a seller in another state, Kahan said.

    "We really need a federal bill," he said.

    http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...th-5859821.php
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  2. #42
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    Right on Texas!

    'Murderabilia' website owner banned from Texas prisons

    On a cool February day in 1999, a crowd gathered outside the courthouse in the east Texas town of Jasper to watch as a phalanx of Texas Rangers escorted a man wearing a bullet-proof vest to a waiting prison van.

    John King, an angry white supremacist covered with racist tattoos, had just been sentenced to death for the savage murder of James Byrd Jr., a black man who had been chained to the back of a pick-up truck and dragged to his death.

    The people of Jasper, a small town traumatized by one of the most searing hate crimes since the Civil Rights era, were palpably relieved to see King ushered away to death row. Some of them cheerily cried out "goodbye," as though to taunt King with the idea they'd never seen him again.

    That was fifteen years ago. Now the people of Jasper are seeing yet another picture of that same smiling, racist killer, one snapped inside the prison housing the Texas death row, up for auction on a murder memorabilia website.

    "That's unbelievable, unacceptable to me," said Louvon Harris, one of Byrd's sisters. "And as a victim of a hate crime, I think that we've been slapped in the face."

    Now Texas prison officials have banned G. William Harder, whose website offered the King photo for sale, from visiting any more inmates. They say he's been paying prisoners for memorabilia appearing on his site, a charge he flatly denies.

    Harder, whose Facebook page shows photographs of him posing with King, admits he's paid "$30 to $40" to help King pay for toiletries and other necessities, but he says the payments weren't compensation for memorabilia. He describes his website, murderauction.com, as "an eBay of crime-related items" on which collectors buy and sell merchandise.

    "I periodically send John King money, but I don't think I've sent him money in a year to a year and a half," Harder said. "I'm not paying anybody. It's just that simple. I'm not selling their items, so even if I do send them money, it's certainly not for the sale of anything.

    The incident is just the latest development in the ongoing controversy over the macabre business of "murderabilia," souvenirs produced by and about notorious killers. A half-dozen websites based in the United States and Canada service a subculture of murder souvenir collectors amassing everything from signed letters to hair clippings from convicted killers , according to Andy Kahan, the Houston victim rights advocate who coined the term "murderabilia."

    "There is absolutely nothing more nauseating or disgusting than to find out one of the persons who murdered your loved ones now has items being hocked by third parties for pure profit," Kahan said.

    Texas lawmakers have tried various legal tactics to shut down these businesses, but the state can't regulate out-of-state websites. Federal legislative efforts championed by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) have repeatedly stalled in Congress.

    "The problem is enforcement," Kahan said. "It's virtually impossible to enforce a Texas law when you have a California dealer or any other dealer from another state selling items from a Texas inmate."

    Harder, who proudly shows off photographs he's taken with Charles Manson, argues he's merely exercising his rights by serving an unusual niche of crime aficionados. Nothing, he said, separates him from an author writing a true crime book, a television network airing crime documentaries or a broadcast reporter covering a lurid murder.

    "Just because a segment of society doesn't like it, doesn't mean you can tell me I can't do it," Harder said. "I understand that there's victims attached to this. It's a sensitive subject, but I don't invite them. This is what this country was founded on: free enterprise and capitalism."

    If Texas prison officials continue to ban him from visiting inmates, Harder said he plans to take the matter to court.

    http://www.kvue.com/story/news/state...sons/18456539/
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  3. #43
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    MARK PETTIT v NEBRASKA DOC

    True-Crime Writer Loses Claim for Killer's Art

    An investigative reporter who is writing a book on Nebraska killer cannot access drawings the inmate made from death row, the state Supreme Court ruled.

    When Mark Pettit was an investigative reporter in Omaha, Neb., he covered the case of John Joubert, who was eventually executed for the 1983 murders of two children.

    Pettit says Joubert confessed to a string of violent crimes during his interviews with the killer on death row, and that Pettit admitted to still fantasizing about murdering children.

    When Joubert told Pettit that he made two graphic drawings of these fantasies, but that prison officials had confiscated the drawings on May 5, 1987, Pettit asked the state to turn them over.

    Joubert even wrote a letter in 1988, authorizing the release of the drawings to Pettit, but the warden refused, citing Joubert's appeals.

    Pettit renewed his request in 2013 as the 30th anniversary of Joubert's crimes neared, but the Department of Correctional Services said that the drawings in Joubert's institutional file "were not subject to further disclosure."

    After Pettit filed suit, claiming that Joubert's drawings were "educational," "historical" and significant," the Lancaster County District Court ordered DCS to let Pettit inspect, examine and reproduce the drawings.

    "The court accepts that the drawings may be useful to law enforcement officers in further understanding the psychology of serial killers, at least those similar to Joubert," the trial court had said.

    Reversing on Aug. 7, however, the Nebraska Supreme Court noted that an inmate's file must be kept confidential except for a showing of good cause.

    "Although Pettit also offered a scholarly or forensic purpose, it was purely speculative," Justice William Cassel wrote for the court.

    Though Pettit claims that police can learn about serial killers from the drawings, the court said he "presented no evidence that he possessed any scientific or other qualifications to make such a judgment."

    "And he offered no evidence from any expert in psychology or penology supporting his belief regarding the value of such an examination," the ruling states.

    http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/0...illers-art.htm
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  4. #44
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    Cartoon exhibit explores commentary on capital punishment

    COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - An exhibit at Ohio State University's Cartoon Library and Museum combines political cartoons about capital punishment with art created by death row inmates.

    "Windows On Death Row" was organized by a TV journalist and documentary maker and her political cartoonist husband. It offers a look at artistic commentary about capital punishment over the past 50 years.

    International New York Times Patrick Chappatte (sha-PAHT) said the decision to create the exhibit came in 2014 after new debate over capital punishment arose following troublesome executions in Arizona and Ohio.

    The exhibit also features several drawings and paintings by death row inmates in Arkansas, California, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, some still behind bars, some who have since been executed.

    http://www.yourohiovalley.com/story/...tal-punishment
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  5. #45
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    Click the following link to view artwork

    Windows On Death Row
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  6. #46
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    American Sniper, Murderabilia, and an activist's attempt to bring it to an end

    Link to TRUE CRIME AUCTION HOUSE

    Eddie Routh, the man who killed “American Sniper” Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield four years ago at a gun range in Erath County, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice unit near Palestine.

    His writings and two crudely-drawn pieces of artwork are being sold online to the highest bidder: the latest example of “murderabilia” that a victim advocate and now Chris Kyle’s family would like to lawmakers to stop.

    "He wanted to have some kind of fame,” Jeff Kyle said of the man who killed his brother. “He got some fame alright, for being a coward."

    In Robinson, Texas -- south of Waco, the days and the anger for Jeff Kyle are still sometimes tough to fight through.

    "The person that took that life,” he told us, “they don't even deserve the breath that they're breathing."

    And a trip to a computer made another difficult day just that much worse.

    "The stoned llama is what it's called. Tammy the stoned llama,” he said looking at a website called True Crime Auction House selling Routh’s llama drawing for $80, a drawing of a mourning dove for $75, and two other signed documents for $50 and $35 each.

    "I was about ready to punch my computer screen. It's sickening. It pisses me off to know that these guys can be the complete scum of the earth and be where they're at, for good reason, and somebody's still trying to help them get rich off being a piece of crap."

    "So yeah, that really gets me boiling." Kyle said.

    But if that got his blood boiling, he should see the duffle bag full of murderabilia at Andy Kahan’s house in suburban Houston. Kahan, employed as a victim advocate in the Houston Mayor’s Crime Victims Office, has collected the items for years as evidence of the industry he would like to shut down. He’s used the items in multiple presentations to lawmakers over the past dozen years in an attempt to get legislation that would stop the sale of the items.

    Locks of Charles Manson’s hair, screenplays by the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech Massacre, jail correspondence from Richard Ramirez the Los Angeles serial killer known as the Night Stalker – his letterhead is a line of skulls and crossbones.

    "And from a victim's perspective there's nothing more nauseating and disgusting when you find out the person who murdered one of your loved ones now has items being hawked by third parties for pure profit,” said Kahan. “It's like being gutted all over again by our criminal justice system."

    So, later this year, with the help of Texas lawmakers, Kahan hopes to introduce federal legislation to make profiting from the sudden infamy of a murderer illegal. It's called the Federal Anti-Murderabilia Crime Victim Dignity Act.

    "You know from my perspective, no one should be able to rob, rape, and murder and then turn around and make a buck off of it. I am a firm believer in free enterprise and capitalism, but I think you have to draw the line somewhere, and from a victim's perspective, this is where the buck has to stop," Kahan said.

    "It makes me sick that they would actually try to profit off of somebody's death,” said Jeff Kyle himself a Marine who admits he didn’t know the industry existed.

    The owner of the site selling the four items from Eddie Routh did not respond to requests from WFAA for comment. But William Harder, a man who has been in the industry for years, did.

    "My mother loves me. I'm her son. She wishes I collected baseball cards,” he said from his California home in an interview with Sacramento TEGNA station KXTV.

    He runs several websites, including MurderAuction.com, has established relationships with convicts like Charles Manson, and has been selling murderabilia, with no apologies, for years. Hollywood and television profit from true crime stories he says, so why shouldn't he.

    "The numbers don't lie. There's a reason people like violent video games. There's a reason people like violent television shows. American culture is violent. We're a society born of violence, and I think it's in human nature," Harder said.

    “If victim types want to get mad, get mad at the true-crime authors who write novels detailing the murders themselves,” Harder told Channel 8 News. “Get mad at the documentary makers. They are making way more money than someone like I am!”

    “We are a free society, if I want to sell something, I can sell it. If I want to collect something, I can,” Harder said. “The proposed law here, in my opinion, will only be used against inmates as a form of punishment by prison staff before it's struck down.”

    “It's a disgrace that it's even there to begin with,” said Kyle. “I'd like to see it shut down. I'd like to meet those guys in a dark alley somewhere. And let them know what I think."

    “I get death threats regularly via email/social media, and I don't spend any time on them,” Harder said when asked what he tells people who might be upset with what he sells. “At the end of my day, in regards to my either collecting or selling criminal related memorabilia, I don't have to answer to anyone. I don't have to justify or defend what I do. I enjoy it, that's all there is to it.”

    Kahan says there is another entire industry he knows cannot be shut down. The retail market - manufactured items like comic books, serial killer calendars, and even a Jeffrey Dahmer doll.

    "The way they actually advertise the (Dahmer) doll says ‘open me up for a sure delight and see who I ate for dinner last night,’" Kahan said.

    "You can't legislate bad taste,” said Kahan. “The manufactured stuff is bad taste." So Kahan says the federal legislation will target anyone profiting from a convict's own prison-produced work.

    But Jeff Kyle's anger isn't just reserved for a murderabilia dealer. If you buy the stuff, you have his disgust too.

    “If they actually contribute to the sickness, then they're no better than the person they're buying it from,” Kyle said.

    "Now it's time to go for the knockout and get this bill passed,” said Kahan. “We owe crime victims the dignity, respect, and due process they have by shutting this insidious industry down."

    This is Kahan's 5th attempt. So far, no lawmaker has been willing to even give the murderabilia proposal a hearing. He says he’s hoping the stoned llama, the mourning dove, and the writings of the man who killed the American Sniper might finally be the ammunition he needs to get lawmakers to respond.

    http://www.khou.com/mb/news/local/te...-end/415361941
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  7. #47
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    You can buy death row inmate's art at the San Quentin gift shop

    Never know what to get the person who has "everything"? It's pretty unlikely they'll have anything crafted by death row inmates, and that's where San Quentin State Prison's Handicraft Shop (aka the Hobby Shop) comes in.

    This unusual Marin County, California store is located right outside the penitentiary's gate and offers a wide assortment of prisoner-made artwork and crafts. That is, if you can get in.



    No, you don't have to go through security or be related to an inmate or anything like that to shop there. It just always seems to be closed, despite the posted hours.

    I first heard about the shop in the late 1990s and tried several times, unsuccessfully, to get in.

    Then, on one late December day some 11 years ago, I caught the attention of the then-new director of the prison's art program as he was closing up shop. He said couldn't let me in that day but promised if I emailed him, he'd get me in soon. Game on.

    On Christmas Eve day in 2007, myself and two friends got access.



    At the time, I didn't have the money to buy the bigger art (some of which was painted on the back of blue-and-white-striped mattress ticking). Instead, I bought a couple of inexpensive "Jailhouse Rocks," one for myself and one to use as a Yankee Swap gift I was attending that night. From what I gather, inmates can buy kits inexpensively that they can assemble and then sell for a small profit. The kits for the "Jailhouse Rocks" need actual stones from the prison's yard to complete which I found oddly charming.

    There were all kinds of handmade items in the shop, anything from knit and crocheted blankets (I inquired about a baby one inside a glass display case and was told a serial killer knit it) to sketches to the aforementioned kit crafts.

    I was told that the really good art, primarily paintings, never make it to the shop's floor. They get sent directly to dealers who have commissioned them for collectors. I was also told that the inmates, including convicted murderer Scott Peterson, make their shop offerings in their cells as part of the handicraft program.

    I haven't been back in years but I did drop by recently to show a pal. Once again it wasn't open, so I just took some photos by pressing my camera to the shop's windows.









    Wanna see if you can get in? Head to:
    San Quentin State Prison
    156 Main Street
    San Quentin, Marin County, California 94964




    https://boingboing.net/2018/12/11/yo...ow-inmate.html
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  8. #48
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    Serial Killer Ted Bundy’s Killing Glasses For Sale At $75,000
    The serial killer wore them to stalk helpless females!

    Ghouls are cashing in on Ted Bundy’s slayings by selling the glasses he wore while stalking his helpless female victims for $75,000.

    The eyewear is on sale on a stomach-churning “Murderabilia” websiteOpens a New Window. that specializes in selling objects owned by serial killers to true crime obsessives.

    https://www.nationalenquirer.com/photos/serial-killer-ted-bundys-killing-glasses-for-sale-at-75000/
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  9. #49
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    Death Row Inmates Are Selling Their Art on Etsy (and It's Beautiful)----

    “I’m not saying these men shouldn’t be [held accountable] for what they have done. I’m trying to show that they can be more than the sum of their mistakes.”

    California's San Quentin State Prison is the oldest prison in the state; has more death row inmates than any other state; and has one of the longest-running histories of abusive incarceral living conditions, tracing back from 19th-century disciplinary techniques that included flogging to more recent violations as “the largest single penalty in the state over workplace safety violations for failing to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

    It also has a gift shop.

    “They call it the hobby program, there in San Quentin,” says Nicola White, the founder of an independent and unaffiliated program, ArtReach: Reaching Out with Art and Poetry from Death Row. “The whole COVID-19 situation has stopped supplies, though. They’ve stopped all the programs, unfortunately, and iInmates] haven’t had visits now for almost a year as well.” White’s initiative began in 2016 as an alternative to the hobby shop (which is only shoppable IRL), and is able to serve as a digital gallery for the art works of some 40 men on death row, ranging from jewelry and paintings to sketches and poetry.

    ArtReach began in 2016 on not so much of a whim, but a gut instinct. For years prior to founding the program, White, who is based in the UK and a talented artist and mudlarker, befriended a San Quentin death row inmate through a penpal initiative within an organization called Lifelines. “After about 4 years we had a great letter writing friendship,” she says, “Nowadays we just don’t have that at all, do we? We don’t write letters to each other.”

    Eventually, she arranged a visit to San Quentin. “I spent about five hours with with him there,” she says, “chatting, just chatting about everything. Including the artwork he would send me.” She learned that he was one of many artists on death row who would trade their own creations and savoir faire within the prison. “I thought it was just amazing, and spontaneously asked if he thought any of the artists would like to do an exhibition.” Unlike the hobby program, which also has not received supplies for about a year, White’s own initiative grants the inmates and/or their families a larger percentage of the earnings from their sales than the hobby program, which has a much lower rate, granting them more crafting and commissary money. “You wouldn’t find me in the gift shop anyways,” says death row inmate, writer, and cartoonist William (Bill) Clark, as he tells VICE why he prefers working with White. “She’s such a wonderful, positive person. The art is also seen and bought by more people [on the ArtReach Etsy store].”

    Clark has been on death row for years—some of which have been spent in solitary confinement. “I’ve been here since the year you were born,” he works out as we chat by phone, “Yeah. That’s when I went in. Went in for a crime I had nothing to do with.”

    California governor Gavin Newsom’s 2019 executive moratorium has halted the death penalty, for now. But White believes that’s just the beginning of what we—and not just inmates—need to build a better system of care for one another. “There have certainly been some people who’ve just said, ‘Why? Why are you giving these people a platform? Why would you want a piece of art work done by someone who has committed a crime in your house?’” she says, “But a lot of people have looked at it, and seen more than a name and a number, and a person who has committed a crime. They see a heart.”

    San Quentin was founded in 1852, and has seen everyone from Johnny Cash to Charles Manson walk its halls. In many ways, it’s the poster child of the American prison system at its most severe and uncomfortably self-mythologizing; a darkly iconic location, and symbol, for a national prison system with ties to racist policing and a disregard for mental health. And it’s not that cruelty always unfailingly begets cruelty. But it gets damn close on death row, and certainly tests a person’s will to live. ArtReach simply asks us: What can healing look like, for everyone?

    Since its founding, ArtReach has had various virtual and in-person shows of the inmates’ work. “The first exhibition was over here,” says White, “and it was great to build awareness and let [the artists’] voices be heard. Remember, the death penalty doesn’t exist in the UK. Anyways, we did our first exhibition in Mill Valley, just down the road from San Quentin a few years ago, and people were really touched. Columbia University also just featured quite a lot of their work recently in a group called The Digital Abolitionist.”

    Particularly in the wake of 2020’s belated racial reckoning, abolitionist groups and museums alike are underlining the cruelty of the United States’ prison system, and the art that manages to flourish under its conditions; Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration is on view at MoMA PS1 in Queens, NY until April 4, 2021. If you can’t make it out, check out the accompanying book: Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration by Nicole R. Fleetwood “The act of creating something can give someone a new focus,” says White about the therapeutic nature of the program, “there’s a [gratification] and element of self-esteem you won’t otherwise find in prison.”

    “I’m just glad someone out there likes it,” says painter Alphonso Howard, who was sentenced to death in 1992. “I pretty much taught myself in here. I had to do something with this time. Painting was just one of those things I had to learn in order to keep moving forward. It’s either that, or crash and burn.”

    About 20 years ago, Howard says he was invested in the college program—and distraught when it was pulled out from under his feet. “They ended up shutting it down after two years,” he tells VICE, “because they ran out of funding. It frustrated me and threw me off, and I needed to find something else to keep me motivated to continue bettering myself.”

    “Let me try and break it down for you,” says Steve Champion, who is one of the poets on death row, and working with White through ArtReach. “You have many individuals in here who are artists. I’m a writer, and I have a colleague who I primarily work with and of course when we come up with stuff we share and receive comments. What’s been good for me is just having somebody there to bounce ideas off of… I was reading a lot of politics and economics, and my writing took more of an analytical tone. I didn’t want to write about myself, but things that were happening. It wasn’t until a [a little later] that it became me, trying to tell the story of myself.” Christopher Spencer Cell San Quentin ArtReach Photo: Etsy Miniature San Quentin death row cell made by Christopher Spencer, $656.17 at Etsy We know that art therapy works, providing a healthy outlet for a troubled heart. Consider Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930), one of the earliest documented (albeit inadvertent) cases of art therapy. Living with schizophrenia, and having committed a number of crimes, Wölfli was placed in a Swiss asylum for most of his life. During that time, he wrote a 25,000 page manuscript, composed music, and painted loads of furniture and artworks to calm his mind. “Every Monday morning Wölfli is given a new pencil and 2 large sheets of unprinted newsprint,” recorded his doctor, Walter Morgenthaler, in his 1921 book, Ein Geisteskranker als Künstler (A Psychiatric Patient as Artist) . “The pencil is used up in 2 days; then he has to make do with the stubs he has saved or with whatever he can beg off someone else. He often writes with pieces only 5 to 7 millimeters long and even with the broken-off points of lead, which he handles deftly, holding them between his fingernails.”

    Today, Wölfli's artworks can fetch over half a million dollars each at Sotheby’s—usually, alongside a description like, “a former indentured farm laborer committed to an insane asylum for most of his adult life…” to remind the viewer that this is peak Art Brut, or outsider art. But many believe these labels need revisiting, if not total scrapping. “Of course, the art holds up in any arena or institution, but some tend to exaggerate connections between work that is, for the most part, not influenced by the canon, and work that is,” writes Scott Indrisek in Why ‘Outsider Art’ Is a Problematic but Helpful Label, “They think this helps to ‘validate’ outsider art, which is, of course, nonsense. In other cases, it’s just a sales technique.”

    It’s shorthand for artists whose work “[is] not academic or influenced by art-historical references,” Indrisek says, with an insistence on pigeonholing artists into a language of “othering.” Plus, it’s 2021, and, as with food or music, we seem to have culturally graduated past solely admiring "formally" trained artists. Georges Seurat did great pointillism. But so does San Quentin inmate Keith Loker:

    “I never knew I was an artist until I was about 30,” says Daniel Landry, another of these death row artists.These days, he says he’s excited to dive into impressionist techniques. “I don’t like to repeat or do a certain style continuously,” he says, “It varies. I know what I don’t like. I’m a terrible self-critic. I’ve had pretty positive feedback from it, and the people who buy the art want to know about how and why I created it, so that’s kind of cool. Most of the time, I don’t know where it comes from. It could be anything.”

    Clark says that he doesn't want his creations to be thought of as "prison art." “And what I mean by prison art, is take the images from prison and put those [on] paper, [or] what have you," he explains. "I wanted to do artwork on political and social commentary. To create a conversation. That’s important to me.” That’s one of the things ArtReach does so deftly: It creates a space for inmates to talk about prison. Or not. It doesn’t operate on a selling point for folks to own something from death row, just for the perverse novelty, thereby fetishizing trauma. Yes, part of ArtReach’s catharsis is in offering a means for inmates to explore feelings related to their crimes or time in prison. But it also understands that while the artists’ work may be informed by trauma, it is not inherently defined by trauma. It is simply asking to be taken seriously.

    (source: vice.com)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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