C.B. Murphy  .:. Writer

Character First sucks this month. This week it was about having an orderly mind, which in itself is not such a bad idea, but when they included daydreaming on the list of bad habits, the prisoners took offense. It seems a bit sacrilegious to put this down as merely a bad habit. As Jacob the Viking said, I have trained myself to go places, places that are not here.

We talked about obsessive thinking and Sandler was in a pissy mood and fucking with us. He kept going on about how “the mother of his child” deserved to die and this was not evidence, as Jacob had suggested, that he still loved her. She just deserved to die, Sandler said. I said who made you god to determine such a thing, but it made no impact. Later, he said he was just joking with us, but I kind of doubt it. He did say he belonged in here and others joined in, that it wasn’t so bad, “three squares and a cot” someone said. It’s weird but I got to wondering if putting guys in the position of irresponsible adolescents was punishment enough, or the right punishment. Seems like people should be punished with MORE responsibility, not less, but I have no idea how that would work. Sounds like life.

The two paradigms, BOB ROSS PANDEMIC and the Abstraction Virus are fighting it out. I’ve never been a huge fan of abstract painting, but I’m finding myself on the side of the abstractionistas. Armando, I thought, was firmly launched last week but here he was again painting a landscape. His colors and style are at least original. It’s hard to understand if its prisoners’ interpretation of “what people want’ (vis a vis the upcoming sale) perhaps combining with the inherent longing to see natural (unfenced) spaces. Rob is still doing Bob Ross, but he has an attention to detail that I’ve never had the patience for in my own work. And I admire that.

Krupp is my new best hope for abstraction. He actually seeks out my advice, does something, then wants me to come look at it. I suggest a different brush size or something, another go at the thing. I found myself complimenting people on things like “affinity to texture.” I seem to be saying the same things a lot: nature is messy; don’t be regular; see what part of the painting you like and what part you don’t. I’m a bit embarrassed I’ve never been to art school and here I am doing this, but mostly it’s an eye and a bit of encouragement people need. I say “challenge yourself” a lot. Cub scout leader, I was good at that.

I brought in some printouts (lousy repros) of my masks. Turns out Jacob was the only one I showed them to. It’s hard to find someone interested in anything outside themselves. Says something about the population. Jerald seems to be growing some confidence, adding “hippie mandalas” to his repertoire of tattoo-inspired art. Fairchild is ready to tackle his first acrylic. He wants to do Dale Earnhardt, the NASCAR driver who passed on. We discussed how he could do it in an Andy Warhol silkscreen style but avoiding colors (like blue or grey) that might refer to the color of dead people’s skin.

Clay keeps working on his cardinal picture… seemingly forever.