Featured Artist | Elizabeth Ashe

Featured Interview | Elizabeth Ashe

Creative Name: Elizabeth Ashe

Real Name: Elizabeth Ashe

Website: www.elizabethashe.com,
Social Media: IG@elizabeth.ashe –  IG@elizabeth.ashe_studio
Project Link: 

Brief Description of self: I’m a multi-disciplinary artist because one medium isn’t enough for me. The world is too vast.

Project Name: Montserrat

Medium & why: Acrylic on wood panel. I chose panel because I wanted the viewer to be forced to look at the mountain, and not be distracted by the sky. I left the panel natural, so the grain could play into the mountains but not dominate the composition.

Favorite part of the creation process: All of it! Sketching, community building, painting, sculpting, sequencing works together, curating, writing, cleaning my paint brush on my jeans.

The most challenging part of the process: Storage space! And keeping at one project long enough that the series is fully developed before I start another project.

Inspiration: The pivot that kicked me back into art after some years at multiple day-jobs in DC, was a residency at Can Serrat, in El Bruc, Spain. A mountain range there, Montserrat, continues to inspire me. When the pandemic locked everything down, I wanted to begin a series to reflect on how I felt isolated and claustrophobic, and the most powerful experience I had with both those feelings was when I was alone on Montserrat.

Other creative influences: I write poetry, belly dance, bake, garden, and soon I’ll have a kayak again.

How creativity betters my life: Art is my framework. It is my motivation, my structure, and my chaos. I bake and give it out to artists, which has been a point of joy during the pandemic… reminding one another that we are here in DC, and need to check in. Art is made in a bubble… with lots of windows into other’s bubbles.

Advice to other aspiring artists: Don’t be afraid of making art about what used to scare you. And learn your glues.