Artist in Prison Gallery Empathy - Creative Resistance: Let's Get Free

Welcome! 34 artists in prison have contributed 44 pieces of art to the show! Each have their own page which you can access by clicking on the individual images below the slide show. We also offer a virtual gallery where you can explore these pieces in a shared 3d space with other visitors of this site.

There is a guest book and contact information for each artist on the inside.

Read more about the Contest Details and The Auction. Auction closes Dec 10th & Contest Winners will be announced by December 19th – the closing of the show.

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The images below are designed to show up better on phones. If you click the link under each picture it will take to the full page of the artwork complete with image descriptions.

This image is of two small wishing wells made out of popsicle sticks. Their roofs are pointed and the small structures about the size of a large hand. One has a fuscia roof with a purple base and the other has a teal roof with a yellow and teal base. They have a crank and small silver buckets held by a thread — Wishing Wells by Bruce Bainbridge

A large transgender symbol fading from light blue to pink and outlined in blue is on top of a bright background of crisp rainbow stripes (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple). Inside of the transgender symbol are stylized cartoon images of 12 different people’s faces and torsos, most of whom are black but representing a range of skin tones. The people show a range of gender presentations and styles. — TranZending by Kal-El

Painting of a tree, with brushy strokes in brown depicting the trunk, and many small leaves covering the branches above. Below the tree are a number of colorful flowers, including a white and a red daffodil, and more flowers in yellow, blue, pink, orange and purple, with green grass in the background. Behind the tree is a pale blue sky, with some birds visible in the distance. On top of the leaves of the tree and painted in light pink are the words: “Plant a seed and watch it grow, tell somebody, anybody, and everybody you know. Look to your neighbor with an outstretched hand. Communicate with them to show you understand. We all are people of the human Race, made in God’s image with love and grace. We may have our differences, but there are many similarities, So let’s work on that, come together and make a difference in our communities. — Plant a seed and watch it grow by Denise Crump

On a black background, inside a border of a thin white line, is an image of a flying bird made out of flames, such as a phoenix. The flames are yellow, orange, and red, and the phoenix’s beak is similar to a hawk’s hooked beak. From below the phoenix, a hand with shackles around the wrist is reaching up toward the bird with an outstretched palm. — Hope As Ephemerality by Shane Daly

This painting uses a myriad of dark and emerald green plants to create a hidden pocket of swamp revealing three giant pale yellow and white blossoms that are caught in the suns ray. — Harmony by Marilyn Dobrolenski

A painting of a lush green meadow with a river with a waterfall flowing through the middle and foreground of the painting, and a large, green mountain in the back center of the painting. There are two fair-skinned human figures on the left and right side of the river flowing through the middle of the painting. The figure on the left is a fetal position crouching down. The figure’s face is obscured by flowing gray and white hair, and the figure’s hands are chained together by a large, linked chain. The figure is naked and facing away from the second figure. The second figure is a feminine figure stretching out against a tree. She is wearing a bikini of leaves and foliage, and her arms are raised above her head. She has curly blonde hair, and her eyes are closed.The figures do not seem to notice each other. — Universal Wings by Kevin Dowling

A colorful painting with a light-brown skinned feminine figure with black and white-striped shoulder-length hair is at the center of the picture. The figure has plant roots for feet and legs and seems to be sprouting from the ground. The figure’s feet-roots are brown, her legs are green, and her torso is magenta. She has three magenta petals opening behind her. There are some thorny veins in the top part of the foreground of the painting, and the figure appears to be in a clearing with the clouds opening above her and light coming down. Other than above the figure, it seems dark and stormy, and it is raining. At the bottom of the painting, raindrops make swirly impressions in different colors against the ground. — Rising Truth by Kevin Dowling

Close up: Tree branches embroidered a white piece of cloth. One portion of the branch is dark brown and curving to the left. Two other portions of the branch are lighter brown and more upright. One part of the light brown branches is sprouting light pink flowers and small green leaves. Alongside the pink flowers, another portion of the branches have green, then yellow, and finally orange leaves moving from left to right. Some of the orange leaves are beginning to fall from the tree branches. — Seasons by Amanda Hein

Cross stitch quilt. Lines depicting clouds & slight rain. The background of shows a Rainbow behind clouds, sun hidden behind clouds with sun rays coming through. A bird is flying toward an angel, who is watering a garden of flowers. The angel has brown hair, a gold oval halo, and is wearing a blue loose-fitting gown with a blue and gold stripe around her ankles. The angel also has blue & white socks. Flowers vary in size from short, medium, to tall. Flowers are pink, blue, purple, & yellow. All flowers have long leaves on each side of the stem. There are a dozen flowers total. Bee and butterfly are flying around the flower garden with dotted bees line following. Words “truth,” “empathy,” & “solidarity” are stitched into the top middles and bottom of what seems to be a digitally drawn cross stitch quilt. Borders of photo are bright yellow. — Empathy is the Seed by Latosha Gross

A cross-stitch of a brown horse running on a white background with blue curls depicting wind around the horse’s hooves. The words “Live like someone opened the gate” are above and below the horse. There is a horseshoe border below the horse. — Live like… by Betty Heron

A painting of a multifaceted device over a blue-gray background and shows a circular antenna with a plaque that reads “Truth single and eternal alive in glory”. — Primal Pump by Elena House-Hay

A painting of a multifaceted device below ground, which has a brown and green background. The device is made up of wires, pipes, and two hearts with gears. Water passes in a cycle between the two hearts. Two plaques read: “One heart pumps the other”, and “And the vital many”. — Primal Pump by Elena House-Hay

A piece that is mostly text, made on two pages. The first page of the piece is on a light blue background with small green and yellow triangles making a border around the page, with the word “Fragmended” at the top and the word “Symmetry” at the bottom. The second page of the piece has a similar aesthetic on a light green background, surrounded in a border of blue and yellow triangles. The text of the piece is written in blue, red, and black ball point pen, and some of the text is interspersed with images and symbols. — Fragmendedsymmetry by Maksim “Max” Illarionov

A drawing divided into many rectangular cells packed together tightly. Each rectangle has a different solid color background. Most rectangles have within them one black and white striped, two-eyed, oval-shaped figures. — It Requires All of Us by Mark Loughney

A drawing of multiple black and white striped, two-eyed, oval-shaped figures that fill up the entire image. The figures start small around the border and get larger towards the center of the image. Between each of the many figures are bright red hearts. — Love Each Other by Mark Loughney

This ink pen illustration is created using black, brown and white pens. Front and center is the face of a dignified and aging Black woman with brown eyes and she is wearing a white and black animal print scarf. She is peering outward. Hands with a comb are styling her wavy hair. — Grandma’s Hair by Dominic Newsome

A colorful cross-stitch on a white background. A dark out-lined frame with different colored hearts surrounds it, from left to right, an orange heart with a border around it, a heart-shaped flower growing out of a teal and red striped pot, and a stack of three hearts on top of each other with different colored borders around them sits in the frame. Underneath the hearts and heart flower in the frame, there is black cross-stitched text that reads “When you plant seeds of empathy, love grows.” ‘When you plant seeds of empathy’ is in plain text while ‘love grows’ is in a cursive style. — Love Grows by Amy Pencille

A color-pencil drawing of four women and trans individuals working together to plant a flag and flagpole into a rock labeled “D.O.C.” The colorful flag has names of many groups that organize to end mass incarceration: Jail Break PGH., HRC, ALC, ACLU, SA, PPS, Decarerate P.A., J & M, FFLE, Cadbe, FFLW, LGF, F.A.M.M., HOAW, WLR PPA, LifersInc., Reconstruction Inc., and ALP. The rock has cracks where the flagpole is being planted and three flowers grow out of the cracks — Solidarity Builds Change by Charmaine Pfender

This pencil drawing depicts two hands coming together and holding at the wrist. There is a thorny rose vine with several leaves and one blossom winding around the hands and arms. The forearm has some scratches. One hand has sharp finger nails and the other has one finger nail painted in. There are drops of water across the page and a few drops coming from one of the leaves. — Compassion by Louisa Reyes

Brightly colored piece with a background of rich yellow overlaid with small brown dots. To the left of the image there are three faces with long hair flowing behind them, and facing to the right. Swirls of color and water drops seem to be coming forth out of the figures’ closed mouths. One of the faces has light brown hair and eyes, and orange, brown, and white hair. Another face has pink skin, blue eyes, and red, purple, and pink hair. The third face is looking up from the bottom, and has brown skin, green eyes, and purple, yellow, pink, and orange hair. The three faces appear to be looking at the right top corner of the piece, where there is a small grey open barred cage. Three fairly like figures in the cage look back at the larger faces, with kind or loving expressions. Each one of the fairly like figures has similar eyes, skin, and hair color to one of the larger faces, and each is surrounded in a skirt of green leaves, and has a pair of butterfly-like wings. — Power of the People by Sara Richardson

A crossstitch of purple flowers with green foliage growing out of a copper-colored watering can with the words “Truth is the Water”. — Truth is the Water and Solidarity is the Bloomage by Marsha Scaggs

A painting of three yellow roses growing from a seed buried in the brown earth gray below cement pavement. The roses have grown through a crack in the pavement and two watering cans pour water with words onto the base of the rose plant. The words say “Death by Incarceration Never going to change Unjust Sentencing Terrible Mother Junkie Murderer I hope you have to max”. The seed is a black and white image of an eye with a tear. Behind the roses is a fence in front of green grass and tree trunks. — We Bloom Together by Natasha Stover

A painting of a rural country watermill on rolling green hills with a deep blue sky. The mill’s water wheel enters a blue body of water next to rows of flowers. Three packets of flower seeds are in the lower left-hand corner of the painting. The seed packets read “Empathy Petunia... seeds” and “Empathy Zinnia 2000 seeds”. The zinnia seeds packet is torn open at the corner and dark seeds fall out over a row of flowers. — Empathy, Truth, Solidarity by Jessica Strohl

A painting of a variety of flowers and vines on a textured orange-gold background. The flowers include lilacs, roses, daisies, violets, and sunflowers. A butterfly and hummingbird fly over the flowers. In the top center, the vines write the word “solidarity”. — Empathy, Truth, Solidarity by Jessica Strohl

Regret by Todd “Hyung-Rae” Tarselli

A black and white drawing of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s head and shoulders next to a large “BLM” in block letters. MLK’s gaze is towards the BLM yet off into the distance; his face has an expression of being deep in thought and concern. The BLM block letters are filled with the names of people killed by police. Below that reads “AND TOO MANY MORE.....” and “THERE COMES A TIME WHEN SILENCE IS BETRAYAL. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.” — MLK Black Lives Matter by Todd “Hyung-Rae” Tarselli

Two large open hands are cupped holding some seeds in their palms. The seeds are brown with white stripes defining them. The word “Empathy” is spelled out across the seeds, one letter on a seed. The skin tone of these hands are a bit ambiguous; the palms could be a person of any race though the highlighting around the edges suggest someone of African descent. The background is a deep dark blue and in the right corner is a yellow signature of the artist “Van 21” — Empathy by Darrell Van Mastrigt

From left to right, there is a small plant sprouting as it is watered by a large, red watering can that emerges from the upper right hand corner of the image. The watering can pours out the word “truth” in red and white font of various sizes across and upon the sprouting plant. Behind the plant on a grey-blue background are images in white of prison bars, handcuffs, skulls and other spooky-seeming images. In the bottom right corner there is half of a face that appears to be that of a monkey looking wearing towards the rest of the image. — Truth by Darrell Van Mastrigt

A watercolor painting of a mother bird feeding two baby birds in a nest on thin branches. The mother bird is bright with red, orange, purple, and black feathers, and the baby birds are a paler version of the mother’s coloring. The background is a textured wash of forest green. — Empathy-The Good Mother by James Boyd

With soft lines, the foreground of the image is shown in black silhouette, depicting a prison yard with a series of fences topped in loops of razor wire, a guard tower with a prison guard standing watch holding up a gun, and the figure of a person standing with arms stretched up, looking toward the silhouette of a flying bird. In the background there is a colorful sky with white, yellow, orange, and red which could be seen as a beautiful sunset reflecting on clouds or a fire reaching across the horizon. — Every Sentence Comes to an End by Gary Farlow

A colorful painting with an agave plant in the center of the canvas. The agave is large and green and beginning to sprout flowers at the top of the plant. Behind the agave in the background is a barbed-wire fence and a vast deep blue sky. — Agave by Brian Hindson

Salvageable by Zhi Kai Hoffman Vanderford

Transformation by Zhi Kai Hoffman Vanderford

This is a series of four black and white pencil and ink drawings. Each drawing shows a fluid, abstractly-shaped body with a large one-eyed head, one linear arm holding a cane, and two legs. All the drawings also include two offset, parallel thick lines (one black and one dark gray) floating next to the figures. The figures are alone and hold a different stance in each drawing. Some of the figures wear a hat. — Pieces from series “Our Kind of Society” and “We As A Society” by Jurijus Kadamovas

A softly textured watercolor image of a woman sitting on a park bench. The woman looks at the viewer and is smiling with a closed mouth. The woman has chin length dark brown hair, medium brown skin, brown eyes, red lips, and is wearing a tan button down shirt and matching pants. Above the figure of the woman is a heavily blossoming tree, with pink and white blossoms. Some petals are falling down around the woman. — “Editha Dorothea” Life after FSL by Marius Mason

A woman with brown skin and hair pulled up into yellow ribbons stands confidently with eyes cast down. She has red lips and is wearing a grey-blue sweatshirt. She stands in front of an impressionistic pink, grey and blue background. Above her to the left in a fancy, semi-cursive font it read “Jessica” in black writing. — Jessica, Kay-Kay and Ashley by Marius Mason

From the right hand corner of the image, a light-skinned woman peeks out with her head tilted to the left. She has black hair that is pulled back and is wearing a white shirt. She looks directly out at the viewer of the image. To the left and right of her head are a red squiggly line surrounded by a series of lines in brown. She is standing against an impressionistic watercolor background that is dark grey, teal, green, blue, and light grey like the colors of a storm. Above and to the left of her in blue lettering it reads “Ashley.” — Jessica, Kay-Kay and Ashley by Marius Mason

A figure with black hair parted in the middle, wearing a white buttoned top and slacks stands in front of a curving rainbow against an impressionistic pink, grey and blue background. The figure has one hand on their hip, and their other hand is put up against their cheek in a playful, confident pose. They’re also smiling slightly and wearing sunglasses. Above and to the left, in a fancy, semi-cursive font it reads “Kay-Kay” in black writing. — Jessica, Kay-Kay and Ashley by Marius Mason

Two figures sit next to each other in the foreground of the image. One figure is an older man with white hair and olive skin wearing a yarmulke. The older man has a triangle on his chest and is holding a cane. To the older man’s right, a young dark-brown skinned man who doesn’t have hands sits touching the older man. The younger man is touching the older man’s forearm and looking at numbers written on the older man’s forearm. Behind them are scenes of a work camp, a jeep and figures fleeing. — Kindred Souls by Duane Montney

A pencil drawing of a feminine figure with butterfly wings standing with a downward cast gaze. She is wearing a bikini with beads dangling from the bottom portion of it. She has flowing shoulder length hair. The figure is standing on an orb with a lily inside of it with wavy flourishes around the orb. In the background, there are lightning strike-type patterns, flower petals, and sparkles around the winged figure. — Boom to Bloom by Edward Case

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