"Fear & longing in Las Animas" - Jackson L. Ashborn

The artist is currently incarcerated in Colorado. He specializes in large acrylic paintings.

All original artworks are created by artists previously or currently incarcerated. They use whichever materials they have access to, and prove creative ingenuity beyond the norm. These original paintings and drawings are born in the heart of a prison cell, from the hands of an outsider artist to adorn the walls of your space. Each art piece is a one-of-a-kind that not only enhances your interior but also makes you actively participate in reforming the prison and criminal justice system.

The incarcerated artist receives 50% of the sales proceeds. The artists set their own prices based on the costs of materials (it can vary greatly from one facility to another), the time spent on the piece, their experience, and simply - what they think it’s worth. Alongside with offering a financial outlet, we aim to empower their confidence and reinstitute their status as human beings - not a number behind bars. For most, art is an escape, a path to self-discovery and healing. Through art, they can reconnect with society so the gap is not so unbridgeable when they get out. Through the sales, they can stay connected with their families, afford daily commissary items, pay societal debts, relieve the economic burden on their loved ones, and save up for the release date. So they have the financial means to get ahead of reinsertion and get a fair chance at that second chance.

21" x 15.5" | Acrylic on thick drawing paper

Like most convicts, I grew up in notably less than ideal conditions. Early in life I found assuage and refuge in drawing and making music. As time progressed my art and I evolved through the waves of anguish and elation to include dance, martial arts, DJing, modeling, photography, tattooing, culinary, writing poetry…you get the point. I’ve explored every avenue of expression made available to me in my relentless and voracious pursuit of the ever-elusive inspiration—my fondest of addictions. In retrospect, art has been the only truly reliable constant in my life—my only genuine friend. In its unconditional companionship, art has been a relentless source of comfort and support, identity and insight, passion and purpose throughout a four-decade acrobatic clusterfuck fit for a novel—which, of course, I’m also working on. Because…art. The whole odyssey has provided an endless array of revelations, really—but at their core is a particular understanding. That despite the myriad semantic disagreements regarding “God”—and the resulting destruction—most seem to agree on two foundational points. First, that there is an underlying force, a preliminary creative source of, well, everything. And second—that we humans are somehow an extension of this Divine Creator. “Created in His image,” for example. Now consider that on the flipside, most scientists agree that all animal behavior is motivated by either survival or procreation—ant the same can be said of humans—every behavior but art. Given all this I feel it’s reasonable to conclude that “God is, in essence, creativity itself. A Holy Trinity of idea to action to result, an ever-outward expression of novelty and beauty we experience as time and evolution—and our divine inheritance is the incredible power to also—create. In a universe of cause and effect, where every event is the reaction to a previous event, which was merely another reaction to yet another previous reaction and so forth—we have been gifted the profoundly unique and limitless ability to transcend the system and choose our reaction, creatively designed to affect the pattern in a way to generate a reality born of our own imagination. From watering a plant to opening a business to birthing a nation—life is art and our purpose is to make and to be art; So, when asked to submit a bio answering “What does art mean to you?” my reply is simple. Art is everything. Imagine that..

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