by Erin Banks
Dislcaimer: CrimePiper cannot account for the accuracy of any of their interview partners’ responses.
Introduction
Charles Bradley Rienhardt (*December 8, 1970) is a death row inmate from Tucson, Arizona convicted of murder. You can read up on his case by clicking on the links at the bottom of the interview. However, for the purpose of this interview, we exclusively focused on his creative endeavors.
Chuck states that he upports himself behind bars by working on commission, selling paintings.
Interview
Chuck, walk me through the process of how you became interested in art, and writing poetry. Was this something you had enjoyed before your incarceration or was it sparked by your imprisonment?
When I was little I was into drawing. My grandpa really got me interested in it. But when I got here, it became a means of living, really. How can I afford the things that I want? Without having to write letters and bug my family to send me money for this or that, just little things you need to live. So I thought, why not throw out some artwork and see if I can make it work. It took a good few years of networking to get to where I’m at with my art today. In part it took that long because communication on death row isn’t easy. So to say my artwork was sparked by imprisonment is not fully correct, but in a way it is.
Tell us a little bit about how or if you develop your skills as an artist behind bars, by trial and error, or do you have help in the form of books, exchanges with prison staff and inmates?
Many of the techniques that I developed I just picked up from watching Bob Ross paint. Different shadings and things like that, so that helped me develop my skills a great deal.
When I first started painting in here, we were not allowed to have art supplies at all. What I did was I took the colors off of M&M’s. I made a little paint brush out of my own hair, and I would use those with a pin on cardboard boxes.
It just developed from there until we actually got some little color pencils. It progressed to where they gave us a few more art supplies. We’re at the point now where they have reversed it all and they take away our art supplies. What art supplies I have now, once they’re gone, they’re gone. I can’t get new canvases or paints. I’m gonna be stuck with some watercolor paints, color pencils, that’s about it.
I was locked down for two decades, 24 hours a day, no interaction with anyone, total isolation. And that has changed for the last year and a half. Where I’m currently at it’s lower custody, so we’re out almost all day, and I interact with the other inmates that are down here. I don’t get a lot of advice from any of the other inmates. As for the other way around, sometimes I talk to someone who says they’re done with a painting or drawing who think it’s finished, and I say, “Look, if you just spend another hour on this or that, you would have a complete picture. Just another layer!” They don’t want to do that because they’re a bit lazy, so I tell them, “Well, but it doesn’t look good!” Then they get mad, but eventually they may sit back down and finish it, happy that it comes out looking much better in the end.
Now, you work on commission too, but for those works of art you do on your own, what era and artists do you most enjoy?
Rembrandt is actually one of my favorite artists.
The artwork that I mostly do right now is basically what society wants. I enjoy doing the Rembrandt style artwork, myself. I like doing the horror stuff too, but of course people don’t come to death row looking for flowers and pretty things. They want Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger and such. So that is what I draw, paint and sell because it gets me what I need: The hygiene, coffee, food from the commissary.
How long does it conventionally take you to finish a project and what are your favorite mediums?
I enjoy any type of paint, and prefer paint over pencils because with the former, it takes me anywhere between 3-6 hours to finish a product. Once all my paint is used up and I have to revert back to pencil and pen due to renewed prison rules, it will take me about 30 hours to finish any one artwork. Which also means less income.
You are also an avid writer of poetry, a lot of which is understandably melancholic and partly gloomy in nature. Are some of the artworks and poems “combi packages” – did one inspire the other or vice versa?
I always loved to be creative, draw, play the guitar and so forth. But of course they took my guitar away here, so I had to go for the next thing – art, poetry. – I even wrote a book, and the individual who purchased it turned it into a “Poor me on death row” sort of thing. So I wrote another book called “Dead Behind The Eyes: The Awakening.” It’s not published as of now, but I wrote and illustrated it, so it couldn’t be turned into anything it wasn’t intended to be. So those pieces of work go together, yes.
Has art changed your perspective of life, your life specifically, your past and current self included?
I don’t think art or poetry has changed my outlook on life, my perception of it. It’s really just a means to provide for myself. But I do actually enjoy it. I sit here on a daily basis and paint – every single day. It occupies my mind, it takes me out of here for a little while. But at the same time, it’s a job, just one I enjoy.
If there was ever an opportunity for me to transition into the free world through my appeal process, I think I would like to take up tattooing. It’s something that I’ve done in the past, before prison, and I don’t think it would be too much of a problem to reintegrate myself into that system and skill set. But I would also continue to paint for my own personal pleasure, just that I would paint and draw more of the classic artwork for myself to keep and choose tattooing as my profession.
"This is what I paint while listening to Death Metal." How have your experiences been with people who have reached out to you, are they mostly positive or negative?
I don’t recall getting any hate mail per se. Most people that look over my case tend to say that this isn’t a death penalty case, that I shouldn’t be on death row. But for the most part I haven’t gotten hate mail. Even if I did, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. So if you need to, get it out, if that what makes you feel better. And I’m a grown man, I can take it. I just wouldn’t respond if I ever got such messages. I don’t intend to get into an argument with someone because they think I’m just an inmate or a bad person. It is what it is.
I’ve got a friend of mine, she’s part of my family, I’ve known her for 36 years, and she runs my a social media page in my name. A lot of that is probably intercepted by her before I even hear about it or see it. She hasn’t said anything to me about it. I’m just here trying to show the world my artwork and what we do behind bars, I guess.
Some of Chuck’s poetry & illustrations from his unpublished book,
“Dead Behind The Eyes: The Awakening”
The king who would be God…
Thoughts of madness burning in his overactive mind, the poison veil and magic spell his very own design. With hatred of the priesthood and their lustful, wanting greed, and growing thoughts of heresy, he dares to do the deed. Dark and evil double speak is spilling from his lips, his glowing eyes unreadable… He takes another sip. In a stupor he looks back upon a better vanquished time, obsession, once again takes hold as midnight starts to chime. How glorious, the music of the clearly ringing bells, how remorseless, his new sentiment.. “the church can go to hell”. To bow before an altar feels like cowardice at best, to hell with that, to hell with god, to hell with all the rest. High atop The Tower with a starry sky above, the poison flowing through his veins like unrequited love. His transformation here will serve to cleanse him of his sins, he’s been purified by suicide… His God reign now begins.
Poetry of the Condemned
I could never begin to explain the complexities Of the dimensions in which I live in. But I attempt to separate substance from illusion, and in doing so, I begin to feel at home in the echoing corridors of my mind. I once glimpsed the man who occupied this fortress before his fall from sanity, Stretched around his face was a mask of clever disguise. Bitter things appeared and fled, dreams perhaps, or fragments from the past, While a drool of bloody darkness spilled from his eyes. So pure, so absolute, the hope of salvation in its depths, More fragile than in any darkness I have ever seen. His facial features began to run together like the slow melting of a wax max, And the features of a hundred faces rose and fell like suppurating sores. I watched, entranced by the way they grew and multiplied, The world of his thoughts appearing and flickering before my eyes. And just as suddenly, gone, were they all…only darkness, As relentless as ever pressed upon me from all sides. The sense I felt was as if I was trespassing here, In a world hovering beyond or behind the façade of reality. A stream of consciousness that one could never begin to understand, Because no world could ever hope to compare with such sublime darkness.
A Corridor From Hell
I wake and hear something crawl under the door.
I watch – as if dreaming – as it crosses the floor.
The coldness it brings chills me clear to the bone,
What´s left of my soul…has finally come home.
With its hideous face and sulfurous smell,
The thing slithers back from its trip down to hell.
It screams to me things I cannot understand,
I scream at it back, “I´m only a man!”
I look in the mirror and all that I see,
Is a thing with no skin staring straight back at me.
Confusion and fear are at war in my mind,
As I look over my shoulder and see nothing´s behind.
Now my constant companion wherever I go,
This thing with no skin will not leave me alone.
In every reflection it´s all that I see,
A skinless perversion of what was once me.
It´s alive – but not living – in a bottomless well,
And I´m dead – but not dying – in this desolate cell.
This isn´t the end, only the start,
Together forever…till death do us part.
Related Articles
Some individuals – anger excitation consumers of True Crime – react with unmeasured vitriol and impulsive emotional outbursts to offenders being given a platform. Others are simply curious as to why one would do so. To the latter, CrimePiper suggests reading the following articles on this blog:
Why Does True Crime Give A Platform To Offenders? by Victoria Hart & Serial Killer Fashion, Tattoos & Merchandise by Erin Banks.
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Images & Poetry
All prints and poems courtesy of Chuck Rienhardt ©
Image of a young Chuck playing the guitar & Chuck in his cell courtesy of Chuck Rienhardt
Prison ID photos: Public domain
Case Information
Public Police Record of Chuck Rienhardt
Public Police Record of co-defendant Charles A. Nadeau
State vs. Rienhardt, 1997 Appeal
Rienhardt vs. Schriro, 2006 Order
Rienhardt vs. Ryan, 2009
Nordstrom vs. Ryan vs. Rienhardt, 2020
My Crime Library entries
“Families Of Murder Victims – Ruling Opens Old Wounds,” 2003
CrimePiper 