👩🏻🎨I am inspired by women going about their everyday lives and finding beauty and meaning in the mundane. There can be elegance in simplicity and routine, and I think meaningful jewellery can be a part of that, so I wanted to explore this visually. On an aesthetic note, the design of Fedoma jewellery lends itself well to exploring the balance of organic and geometric forms that I enjoy exploring in my personal work.
Seil Smith
Ashley is an illustrator, painter, and printmaker with a BA in cultural anthropology and MFA from the School of Visual Arts.
Traveling frequently between her home in Manhattan, New York, and her studio in Hudson Valley. Ashley is passionate in exploring different dimensions of feminism, intersectionality, interculturalism and privilege.
Her artistic process explores both figuration and abstraction, with consideration of how these elements work together to convey meaning both explicit and implied.
Q & A
with Ashley 👩🏻🎨
💎What had inspired you for the collection of the artwork in collaboration with Fedoma?
💎What is a piece of advice that has had an huge impact on you?
👩🏻🎨Keep working and try not to dwell on negative thoughts. Art, like life, is cyclical and there will be upsand downs. The most important thing is to keep working and living through it all. Also - draw what youknow. I grew up with all women - it’s what I know and so I take inspiration from it.
💎 Which piece from Fedoma do you find yourself wearing the most and why?
👩🏻🎨 I really love the Mara necklace and wear it often. It’s a beautiful, simple necklace that feels both old and new. It’s a good example of this lovely balance of organic and geometric, with a small figure set inside a square.
💎When do you find yourself wearing jewellery pieces?
👩🏻🎨Every day. I don’t own many pieces of jewellery, but the pieces that I own I tend to wear all the time. Particularly necklaces and rings; they always make me feel a little more put together. It is fun to pull out special pieces on occasion, especially for dinners out in the city. Jewellery can be very grounding - it can remind you of a specific time in your life, a person, or a place. I think especially because I don’t own too many pieces, all of the jewellery that I own feels important because it is personal and means something specific to me.
💎 What is your biggest achievement thus far?
👩🏻🎨 Getting to work every day surrounded by beauty and my animals is an achievement itself. It’s the little things.
💎What inspired you to be an artist and how did you come about finding your own style?
👩🏻🎨 I’ve always been drawn to visual culture and believe that art has the ability to transcend boundaries we create as human beings, like language. Art has the wonderful quality of being accessible to most and a good way to communicate ideas. Creating work has always been a compulsion for me, but it wasn’t until moving to New York City ten years ago that I really understood how to make a living as an artist. I received my MFA here at the School of Visual arts, so the city has been instrumental in my development as a working artist. In terms of style, I think it’s important to just keep creating work. Eventually preferences will manifest themselves. My artistic process explores both figuration and abstraction, with consideration of how these elements work together to convey meaning both explicit and implied, and I only came to this through perseverance. I’m sure my artwork will continue to change over time.
💎Ambition or talent?
👩🏻🎨 Ambition