Artist and Inventor Tom Lawton Opens a New Gallery Celebrating the Freedom of Imagination

For nine months, Lawton's physical freedom was taken away. His workshop, his tools and the life he had spent years building were suddenly beyond reach.

But something unexpected happened.

He began to draw, paint, write and make things like never before. Imagination became a place he could go whenever he wanted.

What began as a way of passing time became something much more important: a way of understanding freedom itself.

“I wasn't given a voice, so I listened and I drew.”

Wonder in Malmesbury Abbey

Before the walls, there was Wonder

Long before his imprisonment, Lawton had devoted seven years of his life to a kinetic sculpture called Wonder.

An extraordinary exploration of mathematics, nature, movement and stillness, Wonder appears almost motionless even as its intricate forms turn continuously through space.

“Wonder is captivating, perhaps it is the best ever expression of Heraclitus's insight that ‘by changing it remains the same’.” — Dr Iain McGilchrist

It is understandably hypnotic.

The sculpture has accumulated a reported 100 million impressions across the internet, captivating people around the world with something that seems to defy explanation.

One Reddit reader wrote: “IRL magic waits. Find it here.”

But Wonder is more than a visual illusion. It is an invitation to be still, to contemplate the mysteries of existence and perhaps to discover a little peace. 

Visitors can experience Wonder at Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire, beside the resting place of King Athelstan, England's first king.

It is also entry 000 in The Art of Being Free, because it represents what Lawton was working on before he lost his freedom.

Then his own world stopped turning.

You Are Doing OK

The freedom to imagine

On remand in prison, Lawton found himself without the sophisticated tools, materials and technology that had accompanied his career as an inventor.

But he still had his imagination.

He began making art with whatever he could find.

One work, created using nothing more than his finger and toothpaste, earned him a Koestler Award for Outstanding Debut.

It was his first art prize.

For a man who had previously won substantial international awards for industrial design, there was something particularly extraordinary about receiving artistic recognition for work made with such humble materials, in such unlikely circumstances.

A pencil crayon rubbing of the award-winning work, which was left on a prison cell wall, can now be seen in his gallery.

Other drawings and paintings followed, made with the simplest materials available. Some are playful, some philosophical, some deeply personal.

There is humour, sadness, love, absurdity and hope. There is also the unmistakable evidence of a human being determined to keep creating.

“I discovered that freedom isn't simply somewhere you are.
It's also something you carry within you.
Nobody can stop you imagining.”

The resulting collection is now being shared publicly at www.theartofbeingfree.com.

When you can't see the sun

The story does not end at the prison gates.

Since regaining his freedom, Lawton has continued to make art, discovering new possibilities in the world around him.

His painting Hey, completed in October 2026, is a richly coloured work created in his newfound freedom.

Now living in Camden Town, London, where the sun is often obscured by surrounding buildings, Lawton offers a simple thought:

“When you can't see the sun you have to imagine it.”

After seeing Hey, poet Jo Tilsley recognised an unexpected connection with a drawing on the reverse of Albrecht Dürer's Saint Jerome, dating from around 1496.

The resemblance was not intentional. Lawton had created his painting independently, and the connection emerged only afterwards.

Jo Tilsley had previously written Wonder, a poem inspired by Lawton's kinetic sculpture of the same name. Her words explore its movement, light, transformation and the unity of opposites. The poem is reproduced among the press images below, with high-resolution artwork available to download.

These unexpected encounters between art, poetry, history and imagination are part of what makes his creative world so intriguing.

You are the Lock, You are the Key

You are the lock. And you are the key.

Lawton is now developing another sculpture, Machinations of Self, inspired by his newfound freedom.

The work explores a different kind of imprisonment: the ways in which the human mind can construct its own limitations, fears and invisible walls.

Its central idea is beautifully simple.

Where Wonder explores the possibility of stillness within perpetual motion, Machinations of Self asks whether freedom might begin with recognising the mechanisms of our own thinking.

Reflecting on the relationship between the self, the natural world and freedom, Lawton writes:

“Some people choose to describe me as self-absorbed.
Maybe I am.
Maybe I have had to be.
Britain's ivory towers cast long shadows over those who stand beneath them.
But I look to the earth for truth.
To the soil, turned by the gentle force of a worm.
I look to the stones.
I stand steady on hard ground.
And that lets my spirit rise.”

From the precision of Wonder to the simplicity of toothpaste, from drawings made in captivity to the exuberant colour of Hey, Lawton's work returns again and again to a fundamental question.

What does it really mean to be free?

An Inventor's Tale

Alongside the artwork, Lawton spent his nine months in prison writing a book.

An Inventor's Tale is the story of a life devoted to invention, imagination, love and the sometimes extraordinary consequences of following ideas through to reality, whatever that is :)

Together, the book and gallery offer two ways into the same journey: one through words, the other through images.

And this is only the beginning

For Lawton, The Art of Being Free is not intended to remain simply a collection of his own work.

He hopes that, in time, it will become a place where other people can share their creativity, particularly those whose voices are too often unheard.

A celebration of freedom of expression, whatever form that expression might take.

For now, the invitation is simple.

Come and have a look. Discover the work. Read the story. Perhaps find something that speaks to your own imagination.

Because freedom is not only something we are given. Sometimes it is something we discover.

Tom Lawton is a British inventor, artist and writer who has spent his life exploring the space between imagination and reality.

His work draws together mathematics, nature, movement and the mysteries of being human. From award-winning inventions to kinetic sculpture, his ideas have travelled around the world. His sculpture Wonder, which moves yet appears still, has attracted a reported 100 million online impressions.

During nine months on remand in prison, he continued creating with whatever materials were available. Using nothing more than his finger and toothpaste, he made artwork that earned him a Koestler Award for Outstanding Debut.

Now living and working in Camden Town, London, he has opened The Art of Being Free — a gallery born from the belief that imagination is a freedom nobody can take away.

The gallery: https://theartofbeingfree.com

Wonder: https://inwonderwetrust.com/giantwonder/

The book: https://aninventorstale.com