Daily Inspiration: Meet Ashley Marie

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Marie.

Hi Ashley, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started making art when I was 3 or 4 years old. I was always drawing, coloring, crafting, and even sculpting faces into carrots. I was about five years old when I remember being deeply inspired for the first time, watching my dad draw and watching Bob Ross paint. I kept up with this practice through high school, earning a few awards and winning a couple of competitions.

That showed me I could take art seriously as a career – and I would find a way no matter how hard I was told it would be. I took foundations classes at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, as well as the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. I was experiencing financial hardship that prevented me from pursuing a degree further, so I decided that if the old masters could do it without one, then so could I. I was mostly making representational figurative charcoal drawings until I was accepted for a Residency at the Red Bull House of Art in Detroit where I began to teach myself to paint with oils.

The work progressively became a bit more abstract and expressionistic, though still figurative. I had my first solo show a couple of years later at Start Gallery, Detroit. It was around this time that I experienced a great loss in the family, and I found myself no longer able to paint the way I had. I wanted my work to start carrying deeper meaning rather than just expression. It took a few years of reflection and experimentation for me to find this new path for the work. During this time, I was working as an Artist Assistant for a couple of artists.

Honing my craft while working for them and gaining valuable knowledge of the practice. I leased my first studio in 2018 and began to further my exploration of the work. In 2019, I began working in the service industry to allow more flexibility in my schedule and build my practice. When covid hit in 2020, it allowed me all of the time and undivided attention I needed to push my work and build my practice further. I was beginning to explore how to paint people transparently to convey the message I wanted to convey in the work. My first piece in 2021 (Kryptonite) felt like the breakthrough piece I had been striving for in experimentation the previous year.

My following online began to grow rapidly and I was selling limited edition prints as well as building a collector base. This made it possible for me to take my practice full-time. I began exhibiting work in more galleries throughout the U.S. In 2022, I was approached by the Illustration Department at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, and I have been teaching at the school for the last three years, as well as maintaining my studio practice.

I had my first solo show at M Contemporary Art in Ferndale, MI, this past April.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road, but I’ve come to appreciate the challenges and boulders along the way because they allow me to see new ways to improve and evolve.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am known for my monochromatic figurative oil paintings.

I paint figures transparently to convey them as spiritual beings – among nature to convey a sense of peace and healing while also providing a bridge between this realm and the next. In the past, my work came from a place of grief and thoughts of existentialism. Now, I am pushing it toward something higher, more spiritual or metaphysical.

I am exploring theologies deeper and drawing inspiration from a diverse array of disciplines, such as Jungian Psychology, mysticism, quantum physics, and surrealism. I am really proud of the work I made for my solo show at M Contemporary Art this past April and am excited for the new work it has inspired to come.

Pricing:

• $4,500
• $6000
• $3200
• $4500

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ashleymarieart.com
• Instagram: @ashleymarieart
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/ashleymariewilliamsart
• Other: www.tiktok.com/ashleymarieart

Image Credits
CJ Benninger