iDLg v.6

2008 has not started off quite the postive year I had hoped;

Lets just start off with what I've been doing on the creative side;

Like this collage created by Ryan Marino (V-50379 C-7-113 CSP Sac. P.O. Box 29 Represa, CA 95671 in the event you want to write him as well) and myself;  Ryan as you may be able to tell is a prisoner at the CSP Sacramento area.  He is the cell mate of Freddy Thiecke (T-43962 C-7-113 CSP Sac. P.O. Box 290066 Represa, CA 95671 in the event you wish to write hime also)

Freddy is my original pen pal via the project that introduced us.  We have been writing back and forth via snail mail for the last year--and I believe our relationship has long since transcended the boundarys of the project; meaning, we write to each other as friends sooner than the project itself.  I know I have made a personal commitment to them both as a friend. Both of these talented young men are in prison for murder. 

I met them through a project hosted at the Intersection for the Arts; the sponsor of the project is a group called BuildingBloc. I am just a volunteer within this project--as a volunteer I went through a 4 week training course on developing a pen pal relationship via creativity with a prisoner. 

What or who is BuildingBloc ?

BuildingBloc is a collective of  artists dedicated to using art to explore the social inequalities in our society. Through experimentation, collaboration, and performance, we inform, provoke, and inspire ourselves and our audiences. We aim to spark dialogue, to create and sustain relationships between artists and community organizations, to support existing struggles for social justice, and to erase the boundaries between art and activism.
BuildingBloc was formed in January 2003 by Jesse Olsen and Alli Spector out of a desire to deeply explore the intersection of experimental performance and social activism. In 2004, they were joined by Marko Muir and in 2005 by Qilo Matzen. BuildingBloc has performed extensively nationally and internationally, and has been in residence at Warehouse 21 in Santa Fe, New Mexico; The Bay City Arts Center in Bay City, Oregon; CESTA in Tabor, Czech Republic; The Rex in Beograd, Serbia; Rialto Sant’Ambrogio in Rome; and OpenSpace in Berlin. In addition to performing, BuildingBloc teaches workshops in the performing arts, organizes cultural events, and collaborates with schools, community organizations, and other artists and arts groups. Current and past collaborators include Critical Resistance, photographer Charles Reilly,  Act Women (belgrade), and the Prison Poster Project.
Current and recent projects include a 2005 European tour incorporating performance, workshops, and presentations; performances and public discussions at Temescal Arts Center in Oakland, CA and at Counterpulse in San Francisco; “Mutual Aid Pen-Pal Project”: a collaborative project connecting artists outside of prison with artists inside prison; producing the benefit concert “Dance Down the Lock Down”; and presentation of work by artists and activists from women’s’ rights groups in Serbia.
BuildingBloc is rooted in the idea that as artists, we express the dreams, struggles, and questions of our people. As such, we place great importance on our collaborations. We seek out and develop relationships with the people and organizations in our community, and ground our creative process in their stories and ideas. We believe that this is especially important when making art about specific social issues. The true depth of the subject can only be conveyed through the voices of those directly affected. BuildingBloc serves as a conduit for these voices. At every point in our process, we hold ourselves accountable to our collaborators, and we work to give back to them as much as we receive. We consider the relationships we form to be as much works of art as the performances we create.

I just recently received a letter from them both and I know they are anxiously awaiting my response.

I promised Freddy some pierceing jewerly for them both and they both are awaiting a coffee table book that we are creating from the set I've produced of our work on flickr.com

Writing letters is (and or has proven to be) quite the exercise in reflective thinking; it has also allowed me to be personal with someone in ways wherei would not ordinairly make such an effort.  I think I have been actually more honest with these two guys on my day to day feelings and events than I would be with persons more physically close.  I think the condition of imprisonment also aided all of us to strive to be a bit more open and then we perhaps would have been had we just met on the street.  I am amazed by their art work as well as their desire to rise above the condition of the prison and their imprisionment.  Freddy often stuns me with his range of intellect given that he has spent a great deal of his youth and adult life behind bars.  And they both demonstrate a sensitivity that I would not have thought so forth coming from men in prison.  I am sorry that we may never meet out side of the prison institution. 

Recently we have started to consider creating a small magazine.  I am not sure just how far we will get in this venture but I am more than happy to take the enterprise on with them.  I have hopes that we will be able produce at least a year's worth of issues, ( with my idea of being a quarterly, i guess that means at least four issues.)  I know that Freddy is very excited about the idea.  However I am the one wanting to take this venture slow and easy; I think because the larger expense and lay out production will fall squarely on my shoulder.

        The above works, is one of the last things I did in 2007 with the talented Ralph Bonilla, a young man from the LA area.  I think I became too frustrated with the one way direction of our commnications.  Well, not entirely one way, but for me, rather significantly dependent on me to keep alive and active.  I won't know ralph; he has a right to his life and interest and if i didn't prove to be a main interest, well, so be it; By the time ralph started talking to me about his desires for certain white males, i decided my obcession for him was far too great to simply be that sympathetic (cyber space)ear, esp. after I had made such great overtures to him to visit up north and to expand his horizons from the white boys of LA.   I think ralph is exceedingly talented.  I had hoped for greater and greater collaborations with him; alas that fell short probably more to my impatience; I guess ralph helped end my interest also when he failed to return a collaborative canvas and this was only after repeated telling me he would do so.  One of our last converstations involved him sending me this image of himself and asking me if i would draw it--in the image of a 70's porn star.  Well this was my take on that subject matter; I am not too sure I succeeded in the venture.

I do miss him and wished he had made an effort to hold on to our association.  

        Most blogs, provide a significant number of links to other blogs or internet stuff; and yes, i too have been surfing the net and find many interesting links and subject matters; but for some unexplainable reason, whenever i do compose on this blog, i just fail to include them in any sensible manner.  What can I say?  Preoccupied with Elvis.  Elvis is a 17 year old pot head mexican; whom I met while living in East Oakland California; He use to be my next door neighbor; I have since moved to West Oakland California, and Elvis is the only consistent associate/friend that continues to visit me there.  I adore him.  He is also my muse.  I can not get enough of simply looking at him and observing his changes.  He too has become a particular set of mine on flickr.com where I am posting most of the work of him I have done to date. 

8 1/2 x 11; photo paper, magic marker, white out ; another great shot by the talented Ojo de vidrio

I am out of sync with myself; everytime he visits, i'm thrilled, but like most simulates, the down time is unbearable; I should know better but age is not always wisdom; thus
i adore him yet keep myself at a 'mature' respectable distance--which is quite tor·tur·ous; i guess i deserve this torture since i can not bear not to be around him; when he visits--that smile, that laughter, that kindness, so distinct to him; I can not recall a boi so kind esp., to me; and yes, he is a boi, which is the real crux of the matter--i would never violate the natural order of things between him and i; even though my experience wants to rapidly advance that nature; again this too is the crux
of the problem--the line between natural order and the push of experience; how can I tell?
out of sync, i can not paint, i can not draw, i can not think, until he is around--then we smoke a couple of phat blunts and I am simply lost;
my spirit soars, my desire swells, and i am lost..
pity, to be so old (i.e. old enough to know better yet foolish enough to not care)
yet too afraid to lose what we do have for something more;
i tell you what, the next time he lys around me lightly fingering his belly button i'm gonna kiss that button--to hell with pro·pri·e·ty
to paraphrase,<b>atila</b>
this damn song YOUNG FOLKS by Peter,Bjorn and John...

and we don't care about the young folks
talkin' bout the young style
and we don't care about the old folks
talkin' 'bout the old style too
and we don't care about our own folks
talkin' 'bout our own stuff
<b>all we care about is talking
talking only me and you </b>