FROM WITHIN: An Art Show Born from an Unlikely Friendship

What happens when a white guy from Maine who went to Bowdoin College and a Black man from Brooklyn who went to prison decide to create something together?

That question is at the heart of FROM WITHIN, a pop-up art show and fundraiser featuring work by 6 incarcerated artists at Lawrenceville Correctional Center in Virginia. The show grew out of an unlikely friendship between Jeremy Litchfield and Tremayne Seymour. It started when Jeremy bought Tremayne's painting at a silent auction and reached out through a prison messaging app to say thank you. That exchange became a friendship. And that friendship became this show.

The process is simple and powerful. Photographs taken in the outside world are sent to the artists inside Lawrenceville. They choose images that speak to them and paint their interpretations. What comes back is something none of us could have made alone.

Every item in the show is priced as a multiple of 13, a reference to the 13th Amendment and the loophole that still allows incarcerated people to work for pennies an hour. Original paintings are $131.30. Proceeds support ArtVan, a Maine-based nonprofit that delivers mobile art therapy to underserved communities.

The opening show is May 21 at Revision Energy in South Portland. More pop-ups are scheduled throughout the spring and summer at locations around Maine.

Read the full piece on Substack.

Learn more about the adventure at www.heart-strong.org