By Amelia Faircloth
When the urge to create arises, all some of us need to do is pick up a pen or pencil and get to work. But for incarcerated individuals, finding materials and creative support in prison means producing art is not as simple as putting an idea to paper.
A new UCSB Library exhibition, “Beyond The Wall: The Prison Art Resistance,” opened last week, featuring art created by currently and formerly incarcerated individuals. It showcases the talent hidden behind bars, and the lengths that incarcerated artists will go in order to produce and share their artworks.
Located in the Mountain Gallery on the first floor of the UCSB Library, the exhibit displays 22 pieces of art in different styles and mediums—from realistic portraits crafted with ink and homemade paint, to three-dimensional sculptures made from small bits of folded paper.
(Clockwise from top left) Student curators Juan Bran-Gudiel, Gilbert Murillo, and Ryan Flaco Rising spoke with UCSB Writing Program lecturer Vickie Vertiz for the opening event of the UCSB Library exhibit “Beyond The Wall: The Prison Art Resistance.”
In an opening event hosted by the UCSB Library, student curators Ryan Flaco Rising, Juan Bran-Gudiel, and Gilberto Anthony Murillo told UCSB Writing Program lecturer Vickie Vertiz that the purpose of curating the gallery display was to share the experiences of the featured artists and to invite UCSB students to learn more about programs that support higher education for those who have been incarcerated.
Rising, Bran-Gudiel and Murillo are all part of UCSB’s Gaucho Underground Scholars program or GUS, the UCSB chapter of the UC-wide Underground Scholars Initiative. The peer-led support system helps formerly incarcerated students and others impacted by the justice system find success in university.
“Here at UCSB, we work with college students inside and outside of the prison system, creating a pathway that makes it possible for an easier transition for these individuals to acclimate to the university,” GUS recruitment coordinator Jaun Bran-Gudiel told the Zoom audience.
While brainstorming ways to bring GUS’s mission to the attention of other UCSB scholars, the curators landed on the idea of art and creativity.
Through the University of California’s “Behind the Wall,” program, GUS reached out to currently incarcerated scholars within the California Department of Corrections. Formerly incarcerated college students also donated their artwork.
But, the process of creating and sending the art was complicated for everyone involved.
Artist Francisco Mendoza’s sculpture entitled “Lowrider Truck” appears in UCSB’s new library exhibition, “Beyond The Wall: The Prison Art Resistance.” The art piece is made from found materials such as trash and folded-up paper. Photos courtesy of the UCSB Library
Incarcerated individuals do not receive art supplies or any of the typical tools you would find in a classroom, the event curators explained. So, artists in prison have to find creative ways to express themselves with unconventional materials
“They are very limited as far as resources, so they have to be very innovative and very creative,” Bran-Gudiel said. “They use the surroundings materials that they are able to get their hands on.”
Artist Francisco Mendoza’s Lowrider Truck is one example. He made a three-dimensional, teal and grey truck entirely from found materials such as trash, paper, and even small bits of wood. Still, Mendoza’s piece is highly detailed. The 9-inch by 7-inch truck sports a sunroof and doors that open and close.
“The Lowrider Truck is made with chip bags that are given to us in our lunches, bags that go around the bread, and homemade ink that is extracted out of magazines that are mixed with a little bit of water and a little bit of soap,” Rising said.
Another currently incarcerated individual, the self-taught artist Luis Martinez, fashioned his own art tools, such as a homemade “shader.” The tool, made by tightly rolling pieces of paper to mimic the shape of a comb, sprays ink extracted from books, pens, or magazines onto his “canvas”— a piece of cut-up bed sheet. Santa Muerte, one of three pieces Martinez has in the exhibit, features this intricate shading technique in order to mimic the look of tattoo art.
After a labor-intensive process to create their art, incarcerated individuals face another challenge: how to get art from the inside out into the world to be seen by others.
“All of this is contraband in prison,” said Rising, about the found materials and tools used to create pieces of art. “When you are making this stuff, you have to do it secretly. If you are caught making these little pieces, they could call it out as contraband, and give you a rules violation.”
Since prison guards could confiscate art as “contraband,” it was complicated for the artists to send finished work to friends, family, or people like the Gaucho Underground Scholars. So, artists and curators had to work together to “sneak out” the artwork featured in the Library exhibit.
Currently-incarcerated artist Luis Martinez creates artwork with a homemade shading device on pieces of fabric. This piece, entitled Santa Muerte, is on display in the UCSB Library Mountain Gallery until July 2. Photos courtesy of the UCSB Library.
The Gaucho Underground Scholars and Martinez had a challenging time at first getting his Santa Muerte piece out of prison. Martinez had to send multiple pieces of art until he discovered the day of the week that guards did not look through the outgoing mail.
“To have this piece in front of us today is really special,” Rising said. “Luis went through about two to three pieces before he found the day that it could come home.”
Despite the challenges, art serves as a form of therapy. Exhibit curator Jaun Bran-Gudiel, who was formerly incarcerated, says art opened doors for him and other individuals impacted by the justice system.
Bran-Gudiel used creative writing and poetry as a way to release his trauma and express his emotions. Finding his creative voice put him on the road to higher education after his release.
“[It] led me to education,” Bran-Gudiel said. “It is amazing to think about the positions we were in —behind bars at one point, and now we are behind this institution.”
The Gaucho Underground Scholars hope that art and other outreach programs can help replace the school-to-prison pipeline with a prison-to-university pipeline.
“We are the most under-represented population of students,” Rising said. “And that’s what we are trying to change. We are trying to create pathways for upward mobility for formerly incarcerated individuals, instead of what we currently have, which is the school-to-prison pipeline.”
“Beyond The Wall: The Prison Art Resistance” will be on display in the Mountain Gallery until July 2. The gallery is also available to viewers online.
Amelia Faircloth is a fourth-year UC Santa Barbara student majoring in English. She is a Web and Social Media Intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.