Ashley Blanton, 2023. Photograph by Jonny Leather.
Artist statement:
My artwork examines the body as a site of trauma, transformation, and healing. I utilize watercolor, gouache, collage, and image transfers to create layered works on paper that are evocative of emotional residue and visceral felt senses.
By situating female forms within biomes of fungi, microbes, neurons, circuits, arteries, and roots, I reimagine a connection between body and environment. I depict female bodies as beacons and conduits that absorb, digest, and transmute the energetic residue of the interconnected ecosystems of which they are a part. The repetitive mark-making in my paintings is akin to swarms, murmurations, and masses that are made up of smaller parts moving together. The resulting images conjure a speculative, science-fiction future that exists in the radioactive afterglow of the Anthropocene. I created my current collection in an attempt to fend off dystopian despair with visions of emergent connection, sensitivity, and empathy.
Artist bio:
Ashley Blanton is an artist based in Asheville, North Carolina (on Anikituwagi/Cherokee land) who creates mixed media works on paper that explore the liminal spaces between internal and external experiences. Inspired by psychological states, archetypal narratives, and biological morphologies, Ashely creates imagery that examines themes of fallow and fruition, isolation and connection, descent and emergence, burial and excavation, secrecy and visibility, fragmentation and cohesion.
Ashley holds a Bachelors of Art in Studio Art from the College of Santa Fe (2008) and a Masters of Professional Studies in Art Therapy and Creativity Development from Pratt Institute (2012). Ashley obtained the credentials of Board-Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC), and much of her creative practice is rooted in utilizing creative expression as a modality for grounding, processing, and healing. Although Ashley’s practice is quiet, intimate, and internally-driven, her artwork belongs in many private collections and she has exhibited throughout the United States.