A post from May on Micah Allison's Facebook page, stating that the rent of her art space, presumably the Ghost Ship warehouse was 4,500 a month. After Allison became pregnant with the couple’s first child in the early 2000s, they moved to Mendocino County, where Almena ran a thriving marijuana farm in the Willits area until he got into some kind of dispute and left. According to those who know them, Almena and Allison met through mutual friends, spent time in the Los Angeles area and traveled the world together. They’re “true soulmates” who have been “together forever,” Shisha said.įorever began about 17 years ago. He installed all manner of funky items at the Ghost Ship, including 12-foot-tall Balinese statues scattered around the warehouse’s two levels, Shisha said.Īllison, 40, danced, taught archery and “created art through everything she touched,” Shisha said, all while being “one bad-ass mama who fiercely protects” the couple’s three young children. Their friends say they share an interest in travel, and collected art and artistic inspiration from trips to Bali, India and other far-flung lands.Īlmena specialized in photography and henna-dye body art, but eventually became what he considered a “realms creator” - creating structures out of found objects, antiques and discarded material. “It was a horror house there, and he’s the reason for it.”Īlmena and Allison have stayed out of the public eye since the NBC interviews, and in those they revealed little of their past. “He ran a death trap with bad wiring, fire danger, too much stuff everywhere, and then he threatened everybody who spoke up on anything. “Derick is manipulative, mean, scary,” said Shelley Mack, who in 20 rented one of the trailers that contributed to the end-to-end clutter of artists’ studios and living spaces in the warehouse. “He grieves, hurts, loves, just like everybody else.” “Derick, as erratic as he is, is not some monster,” said a friend, Isa Shisha, 45, who performed at the Ghost Ship in the past. Lesar Garcia, Derick Ion and Darren play music at the Day of the Dead celebration at Garfield Park in San Francisco Calif., on November 2, 2011.
Their allies call them talented artists who had a passion for creating a place to foster creativity, and said the collective of about 20 residents that they ran at the Ghost Ship warehouse since late 2013 was one of the few affordable safe spaces in the Bay Area for budding artists coming into their own. Others in those circles rallied around the couple, visiting them last week even as Almena and Allison dodged reporters after giving interviews to NBC News, which paid for their stay at a downtown Oakland hotel. Onetime collaborators and former friends who grew alienated from Almena have pointed to his unpredictable behavior and “darkness” in indictments charging him with neglect and a disregard for fire safety that cost three dozen people in the community their lives. In the days after the fire that killed 36 people during an electronic music event in Oakland’s Fruitvale district, friends, acquaintances, neighbors and members of the West Coast’s grieving alternative arts community have engaged in fierce battles to portray the couple in the light they think is deserved, and to defend the underground creative world they all inhabit.