Ashley Rowland

The Personas collection was specifically crafted to reflect a person, real or imaginary. These characters were born out of the materiality of the latex house paint sourced from specific geographical locations. Each work is a narrative of the persona that would have lived within the walls of the paint.

The Sculptural Paintings are a collection completed over a few years. Each year yields a variety of results based on the exploration of the materiality of discarded latex house paint. This paint is the main source of inspiration for all the work I complete. It represents a specific capsule to time, personality, attitude, and wealth within a home. By using what is discarded, I am paying homage to those themes and am given the freedom to recontextualize the material into sculpture.

The Color Series is a small collection of small paintings. Each work is roughly 4"x6". I wanted a platform to experiment and refine my process of creating snapshots of color, texture, and form. Each work was a specific response to the material, bringing out its potential.

The Black and White Series is a small collection of small paintings. Each work is roughly 4"x6". I wanted a platform to experiment and refine my process of creating snapshots of texture, composition, and form. Each work was a specific response to the material, bringing out its potential. This collection was completed simultaneously with the Color Series, but was more of a challenge working within a limited palette.

Skeleton and skins. Stacking and piling. I strip down and build back up each painting’s unique and distinctive story, constructing their narrative within the walls of the paint. The bricks are representative of our own personal foundation, both in our domestic lives and in our projected personalities. Each title is a 6-word story specifically extracted from a lived experience.

The Heart Series gained its namesake from the cherry wood hearts as the substrate for the paintings. Each work is a response to our human hearts. Hard working and guarded emotionally and physically, the paintings are a way to represent, abstractly, the humanexperience.

Welcome to the 'beginning'. This is where I started creating with intent and focus. I was exploring the abstract potential of a narrative. How much of a story can be communicated through the formal elements of composition, texture, color, and form? The art experience is so individual and personal for a viewer that I believe art communicates more than what lies on the surface. While the surface of my work has extended into sculpture, the theme of abstract narrative has always been my passion.