Thursday, 12 November 2015

Inside the Artist Inside by Sheri Lockwood, Calgary Remand Centre


There is a feeding of the soul of our being through beauty, and beauty is never absent if we can see it. - Jack Kornfield

 For the second year, Alberta Corrections has partnered with the Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts, in Edmonton to host an art show of selected artwork from inmates in Correctional Centres across Alberta.  The Artist Inside – Removing Barriers Through Art was held in the Stollery Gallery from October 15  to October 30, 2015.  Both years, I have organized and co-ordinated the art submissions being sent from the Calgary Remand Centre.

 For years, I have appreciated the beauty of the art inside the remand centre.  I hadn’t fully realized what was involved in producing a finished piece of artwork until last year, when I incorporated doing artwork in one of my life management courses.  None of the artists had participated in a jury show or had their work shown in a gallery.  I could assist them with considering and preparing to submit their artwork.  As an instructor, I could connect learning with real life situations.  I hadn’t anticipated all that I was going to learn as well.

 Art inside jails

 Like a rose that grows in concrete, we can see beauty in artwork of inmates inside our correctional facilities.  In our classrooms, art personalizes notebooks, decorates assignments, and beautifies walls.  Art sits on window ledges and hangs on walls of cells.   Art extends down the arms of both inmates and officers. 

 When asked what kind of art they do, some spoke of jail art and flash art and tattooing when they are outside.  They described jail art as the flowers, banners, crosses and calligraphy that is sent home or kept in cells to connect them with the ones they love. Jail art can also be skulls, dragons, and epic battles of superheroes and villains.

 For some in jail, doing art is recreational, a way of passing the time when they are locked up.  They are rewarded by the recognition and appreciation of others. They stay within the conventional subject matter and parameters.

 However, for others, doing art is about learning, growing, gaining in confidence and having a voice.  They experiment, trying new things.  These artists are versatile as they can do the conventional jail art that other inmates ask of them.  They can also do more.  Their traditional aboriginal artwork, landscapes, portraits, and animals could – and do - hang on walls outside the world of crime, courts, and harms done. 

 For the last year’s show, Dick Averns, an artist and ACAD instructor, had provided a jury process to select the pieces to submit to Edmonton.  Averns helped me look at their artwork in a new way.  A bear, mouth open in a roar, can suggest having a voice.  Portraits can portray the emotions of the subject and evoke an emotional response in us.  Symbols of healing and tradition can be seen in Aboriginal art.  Landscapes can suggest freedom and invite us to consider place.  Animals can take us into the wild and remind us of beauty and the laws of nature.   The artists of these works invite us to engage with their work through our thoughts and reactions.

 If there is no hobby program or no canteen money, art in correctional centres is often done simply with photocopy paper, a regular HB pencil, and, if one is fortunate, a medium black pen.  The artists create beautiful work with the most basic of materials. Last year our starting point was to provide the artists with quality art supplies that could be used in the classroom. 

 Supporting our artists

 Given good quality supplies, the artists talk about the weight of the paper and how it takes colour.  They get thin lines with fine pens.  With an assortment of pencil leads, they can use light strokes with the hard lead to delicately begin a piece or use the softer leads and smudgers to shape the work.  Sharp pencils are needed for the fine detail work and, yet, it can be difficult to get those pencils sharpened with limited access to sharpeners.  They use paper on walls or windows to get a fine point. 

 Some appreciated the opportunity to use materials they had used outside while others experimented and learned how to use the new materials.  Since then, we have found quality art supplies that pass security regulations and  made them available to artists in our centre.

 Art involves the attention and observation of real life.  As our buildings are designed for their function, windows can be small with limited views.  We are fortunate to be on the edge of Calgary so we can see magnificent skies, birds, and the occasional wild creature.  However, to work more fully with life outside the walls, we provided and continue to provide photo books, magazines, pictures of people, animals, and buildings as well as calligraphy styles.

 The artists were all self-taught.  They asked questions, shared ideas, and learned from each other. They encouraged one another.  We provided art books which illustrated techniques and art basics. 

 Facing challenges

 Artists on the inside face unique challenges to complete work.  Some cellmates get transferred taking the artist’s supplies – or work - with them.  Angry cellmates can wreck their work.  Art paper and even finished artwork can get ruined during routine cell searches.   

Sharon Salzberg, a meditation teacher, encourages beginning meditators to recognize when the mind takes over in meditation but not to dwell on that in practice.  She says you begin again.  So if the work is lost or ruined, it is simply time to begin again.

 Other challenges are more internal.  It can be hard to focus on artwork when court dates draw close, cellmates are hard to get along with, or there are problems at home.

 In the DVD, “Finding Motivation”, Damon Barryman talks to people in treatment centres about doing the hard work of making changes at a time when they can be most lacking of inner resources.  When we see the beauty of the work, it can be hard for us to realize what is going on inside artists.  Artists, who are willing to show their work, may face vulnerability, lack of acceptance, risk of rejection, and competition.

 There is risk to having work presented in public and it takes courage to do so.  However, when artists take that risk, they have an opportunity to express themselves and to learn more about themselves as individuals and as artists.

 Celebrating community

 An integral part of our course was to create a safe space to work and to build a community of artists.  To celebrate the community of artists and the work that was done in our centre, last year we held a one-day art show, featuring the artists and their art.  Averns came to the remand centre and spoke with the artists about their work and conceptual ideas, answered questions, and encouraged them to continue drawing.  The artists and staff were impressed when they saw all the work hung on the wall.  They commented on the quality of the work and their favourite pieces. 

 We have continued to display artwork and it encourages others who would like to have their work displayed.

 Life lessons

 One of our artists only began drawing again a few years ago, having not done it since he was a kid.  At that time, another inmate told him, “As you are drawing, there are no mistakes.  Work with it and keep going.”

 Deltonia Cook is an inmate who appeared in the DVD, ”Healing River”.  In the DVD, he says, “One of the things I would like, and a lot of prisoners would like, to do is make things right and make society on the whole safer.  Can this society and the systems create space for us to participate and, I guess you could say, redeem ourselves?”

 Creating art is like creating our lives.  Create space, begin again, work with it, and keep going.

  

Resources

Healing River, DVD,  Heartspeak Productions  (Deltonia Cook)

Poetics of Peace, Vital Voices in Troubled Times, CD, Mosaic Multicultural Foundation (Jack Kornfield)

Finding Motivation, Surviving Recovery Series, DVD FMS Productions  (Damon Barryman)

Guided Meditations for Love and Wisdom, CD Sounds True   (Sharon Salzberg)

Creating, Robert Fritz, Ballantine Books, 1991

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