C.B. Murphy  .:. Writer

I asked Jack if we had any new pandemics and he said no, but I think he’s wrong. I’m not sure I’d call it a pandemic, but abstraction is definitely spreading as an alternative to Bob Ross Glowing Landscapes. We’re talking Kandinsky, Frank Stella, and I don’t know who else but definitely minimalist geometics. Converts are: Armando, Krupp, and Gray.

Gray started it all with Stella-like works, though today he was on an Art Deco thing of an elongated woman. He wanted the ambersand sign and for some (unknown) reason when people ask me what one looks like I always draw a treble clef. While we were fussing around with it, Gray asked what Prince’s sign was (the musician). That was easy: a merging of the male and female alchemical signs which he decided would do for his painting. I brought some printouts of Stella’s work and wanted to show it to the class. I presented them during our time for new bulletin board articles, but Gray grabbed them, and rolled them up.  I didn’t protest too much as I really was thinking about him when I printed them out and the idea of an inmate rolling up an image of Frank Stella’s and covertly taking it to his cell was too much to intervene on, even if it was technically frowned upon.

Krupp, the Odinist, is interesting.  Not much of an artist yet, but he’s just starting.  He seemed to know a lot about language and signs his (two) paintings with the kanji sign for rage. He tried to show me the Edo (?) alphabet he said was used secretly by the Goths (?) in Transylvannia to communicate with each other. O-kay.

The Character First topic is Orderliness for the (whole!) month.  I suspect some of these are written by nuns. Nevertheless we persevered quickly veering into accusations of who might be “too orderly” or OCD. Rob was accused. Apparently he and the Viking Jacob had made up and were tussling like grade school kids through the meeting. Nevertheless, Jacob accused Rob of being OCD.  Sandler veered the discussion to neatness in the cell and how to hide your tattoo needles. There was some discussion of this, Jacob saying its best to hide them in obvious places as they (even “Doogie Howser”—I have yet to hear that one) couldn’t find them. Someone said if Fed pens you can own tattoo needles, but I have no way of knowing that. Seems unlikely.

Jack told me a story about the guy with no face. No face? Yes, he shot it off with a shotgun trying to commit suicide. Apparently his reconstructive surgery has been approved. He lasted only one day in Art Class, though. Too negative. Even the note Jack wrote him he brought into his office mouthing off about “passive aggression” a joke that continues.

“Machine Gun”, the young Native kid, is still signing his art with Machine Gun.  Jack’s going to talk to him about that.

Discussed the upcoming Art Sale and everyone groused at the upper limit of $200 on the art and that all these charges have to be taken off that gross. Jack told people to write a kite (anonymous complaint) about it.