FROM WITHIN Gallery
A gallery for art made by people in prison and people affected by the justice system.
Prints. Shirts. Mugs. Hats. Phone Cases. All of it made from art created behind prison walls. Every purchase funds programs that help people heal.
Browse the FROM WITHIN Gallery
Full Moon Rises
Justin Robertson
He taught himself to paint two years ago. He gives the work away because it is what he has to give.
See this painting »
Shawna: A Father's Love
Tremayne Seymour
A father's journey to break through the walls to his daughter's heart. He paints to manage anxiety, and now teaches others to.
See this painting »
Love is All Around
J Gardner
Even in the lowest of places, you can find love if you just look. An Army veteran who found art in his sixteenth year inside.
See this painting »It Started Inside
FROM WITHIN did not start with a business plan. It started with 6 men and a simple idea.
FROM WITHIN began inside Lawrenceville Correctional Center in Virginia. J Bell. J Gardner. Sylvester Horne. Justin Robertson. Brian M. Self. Tremayne Seymour.
Their idea was simple. Use their talent as artists to help people on the outside who need it. They donated their paintings at no cost so all of the profits can go to the work.
Joseph Bell
J Gardner
Sylvester Horne
Justin Robertson
Brian M. Self
Tremayne Seymour
How It Got Outside
In September 2025, Jeremy Litchfield bought a painting at a silent auction. It was called "Mother Earth," and something about it pulled him in. Layers of meaning kept revealing themselves the longer he looked.
He reached out to the artist through a prison messaging app. He just wanted to thank him. To let him know someone on the outside saw his work and was moved by it.
He wrote back. His name is Tremayne Seymour. That first exchange grew into a friendship that is getting deeper every day.
Tremayne is incarcerated at Lawrenceville Correctional Center in Virginia. He has struggled with crippling anxiety his entire life. The kind that used to make him pass out. He taught himself to paint as a way through it. Then he turned around and built something to help others do the same.
He created a 12-week program inside Lawrenceville called Colorful Transformations. It teaches men how to use art to manage anxiety, stress, and depression.
They decided to do an art show and fundraiser in Maine. Now it's becoming something neither of them expected.
A Show In Maine
In Summer 2026, the founder’s artwork traveled north. FROM WITHIN opened as a pop up art show and fundraiser at ReVision Energy in South Portland, then moved through Portland and Brunswick, Maine.
Breweries. Coffee shops. Community spaces. Art walks on Friday nights.
People stood in front of paintings made by men they had been taught to write off. They read the stories. They asked questions. Then a lot of them took art home.
The show raised over $1,500 for art therapy programs in underserved communities.
Building a Gallery
The shows proved something. The art connects. People want it in their homes.
But a show ends when the lights go out. A gallery does not.
FROM WITHIN is becoming a gallery. More artists. More art out in the world. More money moving toward healing.
Browse the Gallery
Full Moon Rises
Justin Robertson
He taught himself to paint two years ago. He gives the work away because it is what he has to give.
See this painting »
Shawna: A Father's Love
Tremayne Seymour
A father's journey to break through the walls to his daughter's heart. He paints to manage anxiety, and now teaches others to.
See this painting »
Love is All Around
J Gardner
Even in the lowest of places, you can find love if you just look. An Army veteran who found art in his sixteenth year inside.
See this painting »Why This Matters
We know a lot about how healing actually happens. Creativity and connection are 2 of the most proven paths to it. The system gets in the way of both.
Connection is the clearest case. The whole structure is designed to separate people. Staying in touch from inside costs money, and that cost lands on the families who can least afford it. Saying I love you to your son or your wife can cost an hour of work at prison wages. One of the deepest sources of healing gets treated like a luxury.
Creative expression gets the same treatment. In her book Beyond Anxiety, Martha Beck lays out the research. Creativity and fear cannot run at the same time. Creating something is one of the surest ways to quiet anxiety.
Tremayne Seymour lived that. He taught himself to paint to manage anxiety so severe it used to make him pass out. Then he built a 12-week program inside Lawrenceville called Colorful Transformations to teach other men to do the same.
Programs like that are rare. Most people inside never get the chance to try. We want to change that.
Shawna: A Father's Love by Tremayne Seymour. He painted it for the daughter who was born 4 months after he went to prison. Shawna is the beauty inside the heart. The raging water is every bad decision he made. The waves hitting the rocks are him fighting his way back into her life. In his words, "How else could I explain and get her to see it other than a picture?"
If FROM WITHIN or any of the other things we are working on connects with you, we would love for you to consider making a donation.
Why are our donations built around 5?
It’s a reminder that a great way to get curious is to start with 5 questions. Who? What? When? Where? Why?
We’d love for you to consider giving $5 (once, every month, every year) to support our work.
Heart-Strong is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so your gift is tax deductible.