Cheaper than watercolors? Wisconsin Books To Prisoners to hold mud-art workshop

Since the dawn of the species, mankind has consistently sought new and exciting ways to play around with mud. And with good reason: Mud is squishy, sticks to pretty much anything, and makes a weak nerd look like a tough working-class stiff when applied strategically to the face, arms, and clothing. Still, it's uncommon to see mud used for artistic public protest. Luckily for Madison, the minds behind the Wisconsin Books To Prisoners project aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty when advocating for inmates’ access to literature: They’re hosting a mud-stenciling workshop Saturday at 11 a.m. in the University’s Humanities Building.

What does WBTP hope to protest through the medium of strategically applied mud-patterns, you might ask? Well, apparently the Wisconsin Department Of Corrections stopped allowing donations of used books to prisoners last year, saying that used books were more likely than new ones to contain smuggled contraband. WBTP (and probably any reasonably sane person who’s heard about this) feels the ban goes too far in restricting prisoners’ access to education through literature, and intends to use mud-stenciling to increase awareness of this totally bullshit policy to concerned Wisconsin citizens. Leading the workshop are two Milwaukee artists: Jesse Graves of mudstencils.com, and Nicolas Lampert, whose brilliant "Meatscapes" collages stormed the Madison Museum Of Contemporary Art in the spring of 2007. We'd encourage attendees to bring a smock and maybe some rain boots.