By Edwin E. Chavez

For many incarcerated artists, art started as a pastime or hobby. Fred Lee Rodriguez Jr., is a resident at San Quentin. For him, creativity became an opportunity to grow while he explored making mini-sculptures, comic-book-style sketches, paper airplanes, paper motorcycles, and even paper military tanks. He became a jack-of-all-trades.

This artist didn’t know much about art until incarcerated in county jail, where his then-cellmate was making paper-maché art. Watching him taking his time creating art was intriguing. Later, his cellie gave him a task and the rest is history. 

Rodriguez Jr. uses what he can get his hands on to create. “It took me two years to get paint, like more than just three colors,” he said. “Originally I was just painting with color pencils.”

According to Rodriguez Jr., sketching out comic figures was more accessible for him. Although he understands that not everybody is into comics, especially inside prison settings, it allowed him to start practicing illustration. He credits the San Quentin library for allowing residents to check out comic books for free. Seeing the comic’s heroes laid out on the page gave him the opportunity to recreate the characters in new, innovative scenarios.

Rodriguez didn’t start doing mini-sculptures until he arrived at San Quentin. He was reluctant to give up the secret ingredients for the action figures, but named a few: he uses bread, sand, water, and paper to create his own Marvel Avengers superheroes. 

Some of these superheroes are X Man and Deadpool, whom Rodriguez Jr. built alongside the characters Colossus, Gambit, and Cyclopes. He put all these characters on a chess board because he felt that it could be a good way to arrange the figures together.

Rodriguez Jr. expressed disappointment at the lack of hobby crafts at San Quentin. Previously, he was at a maximum-security prison. Despite that institution’s higher restrictions, they had a hobby program.

“I will share how to do it,” Rodriguez Jr. said. “If this keeps other people out of trouble, then yeah, there should be a program for it.”

Rodriguez Jr. said there used to be a sculpture artist who briefly volunteered at San Quentin and then stopped coming into the prison because there was no hobby craft program. This was disappointing to Rodriguez Jr., who was hoping to work with someone who knew about sculpture.

The artist recognizes that people often focus on writing when it comes to creative expression. However, there are other crafts that increase skills and knowledge in new areas. For example, knowing how to paint, draw, and sculpt is another way to learn and understand human anatomy.

Rodriguez Jr. has donated his art for programs like Getting on the Bus and San Quentin Veterans Groups.

He feels privileged to give back for the purpose of rehabilitation.