Transformation: Art from the Inside
October 30, 2021–February 20, 2022
4th Street Window Gallery
Transformation: Art from the Inside is an exhibition featuring works by incarcerated artists that reflects their personal transformation and restoration through visual expression. Founded by retired Stillwater correctional officer Antonio Espinosa, Art from the Inside is an organization that empowers incarcerated people to use art as an outlet for emotions while creating a platform for dialog about the complexities of our criminal justice system through exhibitions of their work.
Transformation reflects how art can help people imagine new ways of being and recognize our power to change. To learn more about Art from the Inside check out a documentary video on view in the M’s second-floor skyway EcoLab entrance, which you can access from Robert Street.
Photographs of the artwork featured in the exhibition were taken by Kimani Beard. The original artworks reproduced here will be on view at nearby Creators Space—along with additional artwork created by Art from the Inside artists—from November 5–30, 2021. Creators Space is located at 218 7th St. E, in downtown St. Paul.
Transformation was curated by Kylie Linh Hoang as part of her curatorial fellowship at the M, a position partially funded by the Minnesota Historical Society. Kylie is a public historian and curator, and she believes in the transformational power of storytelling and placemaking through exhibition.
The artists contributing to Transformation are incarcerated at the Stillwater and Shakopee branches of the Minnesota Correctional Facilities.
Stillwater is a men’s facility that emphasizes restorative justice programming and educational opportunities for the incarcerated. Art classes are available on a limited basis and some of the work included in Transformation are the product of those classes. Other featured artists created their work independently.
Shakopee is a women’s facility that provides gender and trauma-informed programming as well as educational opportunities. Due to the size of the facility, Shakopee is not able to provide an official art class to its population. Despite the lack of formal training, Shakopee’s artists innovatively explore themes of radical change with courage and grace. These artworks explore how circumstance coincides with choice by considering the duality of enduring trauma while aspiring towards personal growth and fulfillment.
A.R.T.
Convict, 2021
ink on paper, 24 x 36 inches (original)
Art inspires me to change. It made me hopeful and restored faith in myself. ART is my present and my future. My way of life. Freedom behind bars. “ART IS POWER.”
Amanda N. Coulson
My Tree, 2021
colored pencil on paper, 11 x 15 inches (original)
Art is everything to me. Some days it’s the only way I survive. Sometimes it inspires me to keep going, while others it is the only way I am able to express myself.
Amani Fardan
From the Ashes, 2021
colored pencil, oil pastel, and graphite on paper, 18 x 12 inches (original)
Transformation comes in many ways, it is necessary to grow and develop, otherwise you remain stagnant and die. Wildfires are destructive but they’re also transformative, changing landscapes and bringing new life. Getting locked up as a juvenile, I was thrown into the adult system and had to learn fast and adapt to a strange and hostile environment. I changed, and not in a good way. As I’ve matured, I’m able to recognize and work on what I don’t like about myself, transforming myself into the person I need to be. My hope is to be there for my family and those around me, adding to their lives instead of taking away.
Cyrus T.
Change Within, 2021
graphite, pen, paint, and colored pencil on paper, 12 x 16 inches (original)
Art is something very important in my life. It’s a passion that I have had since I was a child. To take a piece of paper, canvas or wood and make it into something only you can see what it is, is beautiful.
Transformation means to me trying every day to be some better version of yourself. I have transformed my way of thinking and took the time to reflect on myself and my actions as a father, son, and husband, and wanted to change to be better in every way. My hope for this transformation is that people can see my free self as an artist, person, and a father. To not limit me to my actions as a child, not a man.
D.D.
Spring Recompense, 2021
acrylic on paper, 14 x 18 inches (original)
My artwork are my kids! Since I can’t have any, my art is the best I have to contribute to the world. It serves to transform and bring needed conversation or wordless acknowledgement through shapes, color, subjects and hidden messages. Like children, I hope they can pass on the best of me while I’m gone.
Emmanuel Maurice Galloway
The Missing Pieces, 2021
graphite and colored pencil on paper, 11.75 x 18 inches (original)
I love creating greatness and beauty from nothing. Just being able to bring thoughts to image is so awesome to me! For so long I applied my talents to the wrong things, and now I’m focusing on using my transformation powers to apply them to the right things. Just like my artwork, The Missing Pieces, you can see me putting together a puzzle of my family on top of my brain, allowing me to see what’s most important in my life for me to focus my transformation powers one I’m gone.
Francisco Mountain
The Spirit, 2021
pastel on paper, 14 x 19.75 inches (original)
Transformation: A thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance.
Character: The quality of being an individual.
Perspective: A particular attitude towards, or way of regarding, something; a point of view.
Spirit: The non-physical part of a person that is the seat of emotion and character.
My interpretation on change in physical form to me would first start with creating an awareness to change the perspective of my spirit. Because it is so easy to confuse emotion with fact, that it affects how one would carry themselves as an individual, appearance or attitude. Change is an everyday practice and a hard lesson in awareness.
Jason Stauffer
Psych, 2021
pen and graphite on paper, 16 x 20 inches (original)
[Art is] a way of telling a story without using words. It allows the viewer to creatively participate by projecting meaning from their own processor. Provoking thoughts is always important. The subject is something that is a bit of a mystery and very complicated. I don’t understand it. I hope you enjoy the picture.
Karessa BirdHorse
Spirit Within, 2021
colored pencil and beads on paper (original)
My traditional Native American culture inspires me and its many teachings that impact my life in so many ways.
What transformation means to me is to be rejuvenated, restored, renewed. It is to be at your best, changed self from within your inner being and learning new ways to live a productive and healthy life. Having a strong sense of awareness and growing stronger day by day. It is progress, not perfection.
Kelli Herman
Life, 2021
colored pencil on paper, 8.5 x 11 inches (original)
When I draw, I am at peace. My mental health inspires me to create art because when I’m experiencing anxiety or depression, I know of only one thing that will pull me out of it. Art. Transformation means taking yourself to a new and better place, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Changing. I have transformed my life by accepting responsibility for my crime and making the decision to never return to the streets. My hope for transformation is a new and better life
Kelly Ehrhorn
A Hell Escaped, 2021
ink on paper, 11x 14 inches (original)
This piece shows my hands reaching from the flames protecting my heart which holds a portrait of me and my wife. In the flames are demonic faces to show a life of violence and hate left behind in the past. On my hands are broken handcuffs, showing how this love I have now has freed me from a life of misery and condemnation. This picture in all just shows how any true transformation happens from within one’s heart and can usually only be motivated by love, no matter what for that love takes. For me, that love is my wife and marriage. I’m a very lucky man. I’m blessed with an amazing woman who has inspired me to be the best man I can, even though she met me at my worst.
N. Schwartz
The Transition, 2021
acrylic on paper, 28 x 22 inches (original)
When I came to prison, I was a happy go-lucky kind of spirit. Since the last 8 years, I have grown more jaded and no longer care about people that I don’t know. I realize this and it makes me mad at myself because I know I am only seeing the worst humanity has to offer. As time goes on, I really hope to address this issue and get back to my old self again. This is why I have started to make art, to transform my thinking and help me rediscover the beauty in this world and the opportunities my country has to offer. Also, making art is very therapeutic and calming to the soul!
Lennell Maurice Martin
Inspiration for a Nation, 2021
mixed media, 11 x 14 inches (original)
Art, visual art and music and literature, are all tools to communicate and express ideas, communication keeps people connected. As human beings, we are innately creative beings.
The love and beauty of life inspires me to create art to connect with people. Also, the pain people feel when overwhelmed by depression, oppression, poverty and other social conditions. Artists have the unique ability to create things that identify and acknowledge that pain and inspire hope. It is a powerful gift.
Roberto Lopez-Rios
Coatlicue, 2021
acrylic on canvas, 18 x 24 inches (original)
Nature, time and human beings are constantly transforming. Society as a whole transforms the norms that change throughout our lives. To me the most important transformation takes place when someone becomes autonomous and true to themselves beyond any type of outside influence, allowing them to reach their full potential. Funny thing is that at the stage in life before reaching such transformation, one must allow the embracement of an entire community to understand one’s self.
T. Dixon
Destination of Growth, 2021
graphite, ink, and watercolor on paper, 11 x 14 inches (original)
Heartbreak I went through; finding solid foundation through self-growth. This piece shows direction in growth and solid foundation. Having your anchor to hold through life’s chaos. Transformation to me is the change I made to become the man I am today. I came from not caring about life, myself, or anyone else to living for my son to help him grow to manhood. My hope is becoming a man my son and family can be proud of.
Artists on the Inside
This documentary, produced by Art From the Inside, features the stories of incarcerated artists in Minnesota. Lennell Maurice Martin and Roberto Lopez-Rios, two of the artists featured in the documentary, have work on view in the M’s window galleries on 4th and Roberts street as a part of the exhibition Transformation.
Minnesota Museum of American Art
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