Meet the Artist
Ashley is a self-taught artist from Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario who has a passion for figurative and abstract art.
At a young age Ashley found her lifelong passion in horse back riding, which led to a 12-year career as a Therapeutic Horse Back Riding Instructor to children and adults with disabilities. Teaching people with various needs helped broaden Ashley’s thought process into a more creative and abstract way of seeing the world around her.
In 2016, Ashley and her wife adopted two children with disabilities through the Children’s Aid Society. Learning how to adapt to various situations and having to create inclusion for her children has helped further foster Ashley’s thought process into a more abstract way of seeing skills and processes develop which has transferred into her painting style allowing her to move between acrylics and fluid art.
The “Woman Series” started in 2019, it was originally a self reflection project, however during this reflection and knowing so many woman over the years with disabilities, infertility, cancer and other various personal stories, she decided to expand the series, which now has over 30 paintings expressing the deeper layers of women’s emotional, sexual, and psychological being. This series hopes to create empowerment, encouraging woman to take back their own sexuality and inner strength and challenges them to look deeper inside themselves through art.
Ashley spent her childhood summers by the water, which sparked an early interest in nature and her love for water emerged. The fluidity of the ink and resin is what attracted Ashley to fluid art and you will see many water elements within her alcohol ink pieces that create a flow and movement and in contrast to her black and white calculated acrylic work you will see a bright colour palette within her ink work.
Ashley currently resides in Kitchener, Ontario with her wife and two children. She is an advocate for adoption, Autism and Cerebellar Hypoplasia.