Ross’s Art

Below is some of the art Ross Ulbricht created over the years. It has been sold to support Art4Giving. You can find more information about the auction that took place in 2021 here.

More information about charities Art4Giving is supporting can be found on our Updates page.

Grow in the Dark (2022)

Digital colorized animation made up of 318 individual black-and-white drawings created by Ross in prison. The animation team added coloring, music and loop.

“What began as a desire to track the development of my plant became a much bigger project. What are its surroundings? A cell? How did we get there? Am I there too? I played it over and over in my mind’s eye, imagining how it might look. However, I had no idea how laborious a little animation could be…Oddly, I won’t see this animation myself, not unless I defy the idea it conveys and leave this cage before I grow old and die.”

“I made 64 evenly spaced tic marks around the rim of the cup my plant grew in so that every day I could rotate it slightly and get a new angle on it as it grew…I worked out the geometry of perspective, how objects appear to grow faster the closer you get to them. I imagined different frame rates by tapping my hand and seeing the animation progress in my mind. I thought about how long each part would take, how many frames I would need and how the sizes of the various objects would change. I worked out the formulas and calculated…I traced static elements, using the lightbox I fashioned and averaged dynamic elements between key frames.”
– Ross Ulbricht

What Becomes of the Cages (2022)

Oil on canvas created in prison.

“What becomes of the cages when we are no longer willing to hurt one another?”
– Ross Ulbricht

Death (2021)

Oil on canvas created in prison, with accompanying essay.

“My future died that day in court when I was sentenced to life without parole. When I got back to the federal detention center, I did not go straight to my cell block as usual. This time, I was interviewed first to judge whether I was suicidal. I wasn’t, and thankfully, I convinced them I wasn’t, or I would have spent a few days in one of the dreaded “suicide watch” cells. I understand why they did that though. Lots of lifers are suicidal. There is no parole in the federal system, so life means your whole life. It is the same as a death sentence. It just takes longer.”

Full essay by Ross Ulbricht.

Perspective (2020)

Graphite pencil drawing created in prison

Uncageable (2020)

Graphite pencil drawing created in prison, with accompanying poem. Drawn during the grueling 2020 year of covid lockdown (22 to 24 hours a day locked in his cell)

From the light of freedom to a concrete tomb,
The fall was great and swift.
My soul cried out in a mighty boom,
How could it come to this?

Clamped down, trapped stuck,
Paralyzed in a tiny cage.
Had fate left me not a drop of luck?
Was there reason for this rage?

Told to lay down and die,
Something deep inside me stirred.
I can’t be caged I have to fly!
Not yet am I interred.

They can take my body, tie me down,
It matters not a bit.
My spirit still runs wild and free,
So in freedom here I sit.

Life in a Box (2016)

Graphite pencil drawing created in prison, with accompanying essay. A depiction of Ross’s cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in New York City.

“I let my hair and beard grow for one year after I was given two life sentences plus forty years without parole. Then I drew this picture of me in my cell with Scott, my cellie…Try, if you can, to imagine being in this 65-square-foot cell, just you, your cellie and a pet mouse…Now imagine living here day after day after day…”

Full essay by Ross Ulbricht.

You lookin’ at Me? (2001)

Graphite pencil drawing made at 17 years old

Quicksilver (1992)

Graphite pencil drawing made at 8 years old