“Artists are definitely treated different in prison — ‘cause you provide something real that humanizes people and connects people to their family, which makes them feel valuable.”
The quote above is from the documentary Art & Krimes by Jesse Krimes, screened in San Quentin’s Protestant Chapel Feb. 17.
The film, directed by Alysa Nahmias, is a powerfully emotional story. It focuses on Krimes, a formally incarcerated artist who used art to cope with the daily struggles of incarceration.
Krimes, who spent a few years in federal prison on drug charges, began his journey with art in county jail when he started impressing portraits of people’s faces onto small pieces of wet soap. He sent the portrait impressions home by the hundreds inside stacked playing cards with the faces cut out.
He recounts his introduction to the federal system’s erratic sentencing practices; in this case, he benefited from favorable treatment.
“The one thing that stood out to me was when he [the judge] said ‘earlier today someone came before me who had a similar criminal history with the exact same offense and I just gave that person 20 years. But I see value in you,’” Krimes said.
In that moment, he was thanking God, but the question of why he received a break arose because the person on the other end of the disparate sentencing, the one sentenced to 20 years, was Black. “It seemed to me that race was the main driving factor in that decision … it made me angry.”
The film chronicles Krimes’ experiences in prison. Though he was not very skilled at drawing, Krimes began using graphite and number-two pencils to recreate master works.
He transferred the heads of offenders onto religious icons in an effort to de-contextualize the way one views who is an offender and who is not.
He began impressing images of celebrities and politicians as well onto religious icons, suggesting that we are all offenders of some kind.
The film also speaks to Krimes’ struggle to fulfill his role as father to his son. “I knew that I needed to do what I had to do to make it out of prison so that I could come home and be a present father,” he said.
Art & Krimes also featured Jared “O” Owens, Russell Craig, and Gilberto “Gano” Rivera. Owens and Rivera met Krimes in the federal penal system.
Craig met Krimes when both were free following their incarceration. Both worked at Mural Art Restorative Justice, a program for returning citizens.
Craig is a visual artist who paints. His story is just as compelling as Krimes’. As an inner-city kid, he suffered through the foster system without family support. Unfortunately, he ultimately entered the state prison system at age 26.
Once incarcerated, “The goal was to learn art, do art. Get out of the street life; get out of the prison life,” Craig said. Art was vital to him because it was a “focus and an escape” from the darkness of his situation.
Owens, a conceptual artist, never thought that he would meet someone so much like himself in prison. “God puts people in your life,” Owens said.
Rivera, a conceptual artist, said that when he and Krimes first met they talked about art for hours. Although in prison there is reluctance to open up to people, Krimes and Rivera became fast friends.
Nahmias, as a filmmaker with 20 years of experience, believes that the importance of telling a story like this is to “change the narrative and our own self-perceptions” in the way people relate one to another.
“Art is dignity. It is communication and expression and connection … It’s exposing injustice and it’s creating a new way of thinking about the world around us,” said Nahmias.
By shining a light on incarcerated artists, the film acknowledges the beauty and capacity for creation often unseen by the outside world. It reminds us of the power that art has to unite and lift us up in a way that transcends our circumstances.