THIS IS A FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN! PLEASE READ!
This artwork was created IN JAIL by Steven “T-Rex” Terrell, who is currently awaiting trial on marijuana-related charges. He HASN’T SEEN THE SUN IN TWO YEARS and has been creating the attached artworks with little more than the stubs of golf pencils, because actual pens and pencils haven’t been available from commissary in months! His friends have launched a GoFundMe (<–click this link) campaign offering PRINTS of his ART-from-the-inside in hopes of raising the funds necessary for legal services that will return him to us ( he needs $60,000 by mid November!). The campaign is set up so that only his mother, Peggy Terrell, can withdraw the funds. As I understand it he is currently facing 10-40 years in prison! Below is a statement, in his own words, about his situation. If you would be willing to SHARE and spread this message through your social networks, encouraging people to donate to his fund by purchasing his art, he would be immensely grateful.
We are not just panhandling for donations. We are offering prints of liberated expressions made in captivity, with limited means.
A $20 donation buys you an 8 1/5 x 11 print on cardstock. Please include the number of your desired image (e.g. “#4”) in the comment section of your donation, and be sure to include your address so that we can send it to you!
And now in the words of the artist himself:
“Hello my beloved friends and family,First I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the outpouring of support you have shown in such a short time. I am deeply moved just to know you have not forgotten me. I have suffered silently in the abyss of anonymity for two years now, subsisting on faith that the truth would set me free. In that time I have communicated with a total of about ten people; assuming you know me, and how much I love to be with my people the level of isolation to which I am condemned should be impossible to imagine. The truth is my rights have been violated extensively, consistently & efficiently. I was driving with my cruise control set on the speed limit on I-80 eastbound in Illinois, minding my own business and obeying all traffic laws when a state trooper pulled up beside me and eyed me neatly groomed & handsomely dressed, singing along with Paul Simon’s “Rhythm of the Saints”, both hands on the wheel, eyes fixed on the road. The trooper fell in behind me and turned on his lights. He said he pulled me over for doing seventy-two in a sixty-five-which was not true. My Colorado lisence, tags and registration were all in perfect order but he continued walking circles around my car and acting peculiar. He said he had to write me a warning ticket and walked back and forth between his and my car while five other State Patrol cars pulled in behind him, and still I waited, confident and secure in the knowledge that I had done nothing wrong and would be on my way directly. After an eternity he handed me a warning ticket, assured me it wasn’t an admission of guilt and that it was only a warning anyway. He turned to walk away, turned back and said a K-9 had arrived and they were going to run it around my car. Then there was a German shepherd with his front paws on my hatchback in a barking match with my dog, who had been beside me in the passenger seat. The officer said that was the signal and ordered me out of the car. When I was on the side of the road the K-9 officer told me they “see a guy coming from Colorado and assume he has pot”. I was arrested under allegations of carry Marijuana. Though Illinois law states a State Trooper must have video equipment recording during every traffic stop, this officer was on special assignment far from his own district, with no video, which allowed him extra and in fact unlawful flexibility with his behavior. However, under testimony all he would have to do would be to recite the statue of the law regardless of its inconsistency with the truth. The exact mile marker where I was stopped is synonymous with unlawful stops of out of state vehicles and subsequent illegal searches and seizures. This type of scenario has been a major source of revenue for the county for a long time. If an officer quotes the law, a judge rules in his favor…the truth is irrelevant and good peoples lives are ruined for the sake or revenue. There is a litany of other examples of exactly how my rights were violated at every level of progression in my case, but I am advised not to comment on ongoing litigation. In this instance I cannot afford further silence, nor can I risk full disclosure. I cannot describe the effect of seeing officers and prosecutors allowed to lie and break the rules as a matter of course has had on my state of mind. Disbelief doesn’t begin-fear doesn’t come close. I want my freedom and I want to make the most of it.For that I turn first to friends and family and I ask that you do whatever you can. I also ask that you help me make this public. Some of my friends have organized this and let me know that the art I have created while in this situation is being sold in it’s original state as well as limited edition prints. T-shirts have been created and benefit concerts are being held with all proceeds going to a go fund me account that can help me with the legal fees necessary to get out of this mess. I love you all and am infinitely grateful for your support.”
