The air-brushed paintings hanging in the University of Toledo's Multicultural Student Center are mostly what you'd expect.

There are portraits of African-American icons Rosa Parks, Malcom X, and Muhammad Ali. There are large phantasmagoric canvases crammed full of Mexican culture - an Aztec warrior, Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata.

They were made by local artists, but none you would see around campus or even on the street.

They were created by prisoners.

Specifically, Fernando Auces and Steven Chorvas, who air-brush six hours a day at the Toledo Correctional Institution as part of its community service program.

Auces is halfway through a 20-year sentence for selling drugs. Chorvas is serving 23-to-life for murder. Both men are 41.

Nineteen pieces of art that they worked on together were brought to UT for the exhibit called "Images of Optimism From Behind the Walls," which will last through April 15.

Some are multicultural in nature, others are more light-hearted, like one of a cat playing cards.

"It's just to show the human side of individuals," said Morris Jenkins, assistant professor of criminal justice at UT who helped bring the artwork to campus. "They have talents just like anyone else."

Just as important, Jenkins believes that getting inmate art into the community is an important part of restorative justice, the idea that crime disrupts the natural relationship between victims, offenders, and the community, and that we need to try to bring those all together.

"Maybe this is a way of starting a dialogue between all the components," he said.

Susan Brown, deputy warden of special services at the prison, said creating art is something the inmates enjoy. It helps give something back to the community, and also keeps them on the straight and narrow.

"They don't get in any trouble," she said. "It gives them an outlet.

The studio at the prison is full of all kinds of ongoing projects - self-portraits, cartoon designs, an oversized Ohio State football helmet.

Auces said he started drawing when he first came to prison and made designs on envelopes he sent to family. He would put water on M&Ms and use the pigment from the candy shells to color his artwork.

He said he draws on his personal experience and his cultural heritage - he originally is from Mexico - for much of his art. He's happy to have some of them on public display.

"It feels good," he said. "We got families. They're gonna be proud of us."

"Images of Optimism From Behind the Walls" will be on display through April 15 at the University of Toledo's Multicultural Student Center in Student Union Room 2500. Hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Contact Ryan E. Smith at ryansmith@theblade.com

or 419-724-6103.

First Published March 30, 2006, 9:29 a.m.