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 Mural Painting in Action 

Much behind-the-scenes action for this Mural addition: for months I have been researching people and their cases, collecting numbers of years in prison, dates of release and exoneration. Arranging them for the mural to give the viewer a tiny glimpse into the immensity of LIVES STOLEN. Each freed person becomes a momentous story of injustice bending toward some "form of justice” – even though being freed after 44 years of sitting innocently in prison still remains plainly unjust and utterly sad. The huge number of wrongful convictions in America highlights racism as part of the system’s dysfunction. I am reading story after story, each with many details about the tragic outcomes of flawed judicial process, outrageous unlawful witness tampering, unsuccessful pressuring for guilty pleas, and more. Assumption of Guilt is incredibly rampant concerning African Americans. After four hours of this, I am stunned and unable to do more for my selection process. (Sometimes I had to take a pause of a month.) Many selfless lawyers however are tirelessly committed to the arduous work of freeing innocent people. It takes years. Watching the freed individual take their first steps outside prison walls, being greeted and embraced by family, friends, lawyers, has me sobbing along over and over. And the 70 names that will be added to the Memorial Mural are only a tiny fraction. Celebrated for their hard-won freedom, and memorialized in their humanity, perseverance and strength – each a reminder that we as a society desperately need abolition, and a new understanding of true justice & equality, in order to affirm our own humanity. 

 

After measuring tracing lines (12 names on both sides of each panel) and sketching with a pencil, Nicky is adding the first names with a black paint pen in a small font.

 

Karina putting second layer of paint on STOLEN LIVES – time to stop soon, 

sun is hitting hard, the shadows now making it difficult to see well one’s brush strokes.

 

The steep incline to doors makes the work of painting arduous – here I tilted the camera almost 45 degrees, and it shows the “stance” we need to take to brace our hand for accurate calligraphy.

 

A day of turquoise…. 


Comments

  1. Alex KAugust 22, 2022 at 8:49 AM

    It is a difficult task that you have undertaken to honor and bring to awareness the many Black lives lost and stolen by our society. To put it up amidst white affluence and comfort takes courage. Your ongoing effort and devotion points to the hard work and attention needed to the task of healing and changing for the better our racist society-the fact of which is many times hidden in plain sight. It is sobering and inspiring what you are doing with this memorial.

    ReplyDelete
  2. nicole gervacioAugust 30, 2022 at 1:50 PM

    the word immensity stays with me. the immensity around each name, each person, of the families, loved ones, and communities connected to these people, affected by this violence, immensity in the time, energy and labor of the lawyers. immensity in learning these histories or in remembering.

    ReplyDelete

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