Voices Behind Walls...writing | Art of Voices #JBRuby

Voices Behind Walls...writing
"See the light..."

Introducing Art of Voices participant Judi Ruby and her painting of a youth from the Voices Behind Walls program caught in the act of writing.  This painting is based on a photograph I took with my first digital camera I used to document workshop activities...a Logitech Pocket cam.  This was during VBW's earliest years.  At the time I only knew how to record the spoken word and acapella expressions of incarcerated youth with a microphone and laptop software.  It simply involved a participant sitting in front of our microphone and recording what he wrote on paper. No beats. 

The youth captured in the painting by Ruby was one of the sharpest pens in VBW history.  On his own time he actually found a way to record himself using a stereo boombox that his unit used in their pod.  The boombox had a tape deck he used to record himself rapping to a beat.  Before he was released I got the chance to hear some of his recordings when he brought one of his cassettes to workshop (we called it a demo). In a lot of ways, his efforts inspired our next phase in how we conducted recordings which involved playing beats in the background from my portable CD stereo player while a participant got on the mic.  Over the years other youth who brought recording experience to our workshop from the time they spent rapping with older siblings or friends on the outside would redefine our recording process. 

It would've been nice to have had the recording capability we learned later during the time we spent with the participant who recorded himself on cassette.  Those moments reflected our Hip Hop story of figuring out ways to make something out of the little bit of equipment and technical knowledge we had. In the future I hope to release the recordings of the participant depicted in the paining.

#Lee

Here are Ruby's thoughts on how she approached the painting above for the Art of Voices project: "The original photo for this painting had very subtle contrast because the subject matter was mostly shades of grey and white with dispersed lighting. My usual style employs rainbow colors and a focused light source producing strong shadows. I wanted to introduce color in a way that would retain the subtle contrast of the original photograph and not look artificial, yet add interest to the work. I used the brightest colors on the page being authored by the young subject." 

Art of Voices is a Voices Behind Walls (VBW) project supported by Community Solutions of El Paso to recruit illustrators through Volunteer Match to help recreate VBW workshop photographs into art.  The photographs were taken during workshop activities in juvenile detention between the years of 2006-2014.  Artistic remakes of the photographs protect the identity of workshop participants by changing details of face and other identifiers.  The purpose of this project is to document the VBW program's history and the creative expression activities incarcerated youth were engaged in.  This project also offers the VBW photographer and illustrators an opportunity to reflect on what the images say about the juvenile justice system and the importance of creative expression activity for youth as a means of education, therapy, self-improvement, community engagement, rehabilitation, positive Hip Hop activity, and mentorship.