Journey to Freedom: a Visual Journal of the Making of the Razor Wire Phoenixes Prison Arts Project

"Journey to Freedom" is a series of collages and assemblages sharing the experiences of artist andworkshop leader, Adrienne Fritze as she continues to grow the prison arts project, Razor Wire Phoenixes. The artworks and the stories that accompany them are raw, provocative and captivating.

(PRWEB) January 17, 2004 --10 months ago, Adrienne Fritze was invited to share her community arts project, Empty & Meaningless: the Box Project, with counselors at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville Oregon.

"Back then, I thought I was bringing a vehicle of healing to the women inmates at the prison," She smiles wryly. "Turns out, it was they who brought healing to me."

It was this, and nearly a year's worth of varied events - leading workshops, tireless fundraising, researching the newly emerging field of applied arts to work with marginalized communities (including a two-week investigative trip to England this past December) and ultimately re-creating her own life - that is the inspiration for a new series of assemblages and collages.

JOURNEY depicts the experiences of artist and community arts leader, Adrienne Fritze, in creating the Razor Wire Phoenixes prison arts project. It expresses the ups and downs of inquiring into a system of thinking that surrounds the notion of imprisonment - the artist's own as well as those of the inmates whom she serves with her workshops, their counselors, families, and communities, the criminal justice system workers, and the public at large.

Ms. Fritze recently traveled to England to meet and collaborate with other artists who use their work in a similar manner - one of whom is a newly released inmate who transformed his own life behind bars through drama. The current version of JOURNEY includes influences from her 12-day immersion in the world of applied transformational arts in the UK, as well as the profound and healing experiences she has had in serving inmates whom she regards as courageous and important people in the fabric of our society.

Ms. Fritze will share her artworks & photos, experiences and long-term vision for Razor Wire Phoenixes with guests at a fundraising event on January 18th, beginning at 3:30 p.m. at the Dahlia Café & Lounge at 3000 NE Killingsworth. (For more on this event, and to buy tickets, please visit the event website at http://www.urbanesque.com/grand_rita.html). PLEASE NOTE that this event is a ladies-only event for women 21 and older. Call 503.282.6011 for details.

Ms. Fritze is also available to speak to groups about the Razor Wire Phoenixes project and using the arts to transform communities.

MORE ABOUT RAZOR WIRE PHOENIXES
Razor Wire Phoenixes is a dual-focused project: The FIRST focus is on the use of visual arts workshops to give prison inmate participants access to a deeper understanding and influence over relationships in their lives as an opening to healing.

The SECOND focus is on sharing those expressions about the intended transformation of these relationships in a public exhibition of the work, housed in installations created by artist Adrienne Fritze. During the exhibition timeframe, Ms. Fritze conducts public arts workshops similar to those used by her in the prisons, and hostesses an open forum for discussion about imprisonment and freedom, the workability of our current system, and individual and cultural responsibility in relation to imprisonment.

Razor Wire Phoenixes is a production of the transformational community arts program, Empty & Meaningless: the Box Project. More information on all these projects and events may be found on the web by visiting http://www.urbanesque.com.

DIGITAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
PLEASE NOTE: Images will be posted to the Razor Wire press website on Sunday, January 9th - URL http://www.urbanesque.com/RWP/Press.