As a way to display the artistic talent inside prison, a miniature city based on the collective memories of more than a dozen incarcerated artists was exhibited at a Jan. 22 TEDx event, Life Revealed.
The technology, entertainment and design event at San Quentin State Prison showcased “many incarcerated human beings who are starting their lives over. They are healing, in recovery, and finding their passion to be of service to their communities,” said Thao Nou Pang, one of the inmates who coordinated the TEDx event.
A DreamCity
The miniature city had streets named after its creators. The Arts-in-Corrections facilitator, Amy Ho, said that once every person decided what they wanted to create, the artists linked the pieces together.
“Each piece was individually built. But the real work came when the artists had to come together and figure out how to build the city,” Ho said.
Gary Harrell, one of the artists who participated in the exhibit, built a hotel.
“The Harrell Hotel exists in a structure that’s always growing,” Harrell said. “It accommodates everyone, because we have to make room to make this community work.”
Nicolas Bucci, another artist, added a water tower converted into a home. He said it came from the memories of a place he often visited as a child growing up in Southern California. His love for cooking also inspired two other miniature buildings: Bucci’s Donuts and Tail of the Buch.
Artist Noah Wright built a lighthouse and a building about to be demolished.
“The eye on the lighthouse represents that Big Brother is watching us,” Wright said. “The other building started as a lunch box. But as I was building it, it was getting warped, so I built the wrecking ball.”
Wright said working on the city represented going forward and rebuilding his life. He said he believes working on this project showed that he could create rather than be destructive, which “is far more satisfying and long-lasting.” In that spirit, Wright also built a crane to help with development in the city.
“Most people wouldn’t expect prisoners to create fine art, but that’s not true,” said curator Tommy Winfrey, a prisoner at San Quentin. “The art isn’t all gun towers and prison-focused, but uses traditional artistic techniques such as perspective and color theory.”
Arts in Corrections
Facilitator Carolyn Newberg, who holds art classes at the prison, taught some of these techniques. She regularly brings in books and magazines to foster artistic ideas.
“As a kid growing up I had this book Wild Flowers of America,” Newberg said. “It always fascinated me. Later in life, after going to visit my brother, I found out that he was getting rid of it. With all its childhood memories, I wanted to keep it.”
Newberg brought the book into the studio for the men to have. Inmate George King was almost immediately drawn to it, she said. King said he is always searching for something new and the flower book fascinated him.
“I went through the whole book and I kept coming back to that flower,” King said. “I know it’s not in mainstream art, but that’s what I’m trying to get away from. I don’t want to follow the trend.”
For weeks, King worked on different drawings of the flower by using tracing paper and other artistic techniques until he came up with a final draft exhibited at the TEDx event.
Guss “Lumumba” Edwards, another artist, contributed three African-influenced oil paintings to the exhibit.
“I completed New Beginnings just for this exhibit,” Edwards said. “It was my first oil painting after at least 18 years. One of the main reasons I like being at San Quentin is because the art program allows the use of lots of different materials.”
Show curator Winfrey said the art program at San Quentin is unique. He said the facilitators who come in to teach artistic techniques and allow the men to work in a collective with other artists make it special.
“It is also unique in that I can be an inmate and curate an art show, too,” he said.
