Summer bliss in the studio

 The challenge...

The Nicolaysen Museum in Casper, Wyoming

I've been wonderfully busy working on this show.  There is always a time crunch, but I get my best ideas and energy in a tight timeframe.

The Plan:

Work in progress...

The star of the show- the milkweed

                                           

Pop Up Opera

 

Break and breathe...

 So many things gone on since last posting. I say I am going to be better, be more regular, and write as much as I make, but I am balancing and spinning too many plates, and this one keeps getting dropped/broken.  Surgery is on the horizon for me and the unknowns beyond that date are haunting me.  Positive thinking, positive healing. 

I am currently focusing on all of the materials I can play with while my neck is healing. The projects I have had to put on hold for teaching, or family, or just lack of time in general.  This is my road to recovery project. Keeping busy, keeping happy.

My lil sweet studio..

Ready to work.  

Full Professor and other stuff....

After 16 years here in Wyoming, I just received full professor and am thrilled to share what I have learned in academia and in the art world.  You learn a lot about yourself in these situations and definitely what you are not.  I am not someone who is willing to step on someone else to get what I want.  Maybe that is the southern in me, coming from New Orleans, but I hope it is the human in me. I am earnest and honest in my work whether in the classroom or a gallery space.  This is not always the case in others I work with and maybe one day this will not surprise me but I have this nasty habit of thinking others should be kind and helpful. Now, of course, this is not everyone, but academia is full of competition for funding and students and everything always seems to have an agenda attached to it.  This may exist in the art world but I see it less where I choose to exhibit. There was only one gallery in New Orleans I experienced this and it was where the gallery owner also was a listed artist in the gallery.  Maybe it is just me, but I don't think you should dip your quill in the company ink. It confuses things.  He begrudgingly wrote me a check when I sold all of the work in my given space and refused to give me access to the buyers when asked.   It may be why I attempt to target kids with my artwork. Kids are rarely not what they appear to be.  Regardless, I am always excited to get comments on my website and when I do gallery talks that my work offers some hope and a silver lining when applicable to someone going through a tough move/ transition or has been through a natural disaster.  You can put yourself mentally in my seeds and imagine floating off into the wind to a new and better situation.

I think about all of the people hit by tornados lately and how scary that must be.

My childhood home in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

The students and I did a small exhibition together that utilized Altoids tins into sculptural works.  This was my homage to my home town and the beautiful french doors in the Quarter.

A daily reminder

So it is April 2019, and the school's end of the semester is in sight.  What a great semester full of interesting questions and delights as students feel their way through sculpture. 2018 was rough as it really taught me how much the college student as we have known them has changed.  I wish I could say that that was a positive thing but not when you feel as if you are working against a wall most of the time. It is exhausting.  This semester has taught me there is hope.  I have great students that are a constant reminder of why I teach.  They want to learn and want honesty in their art-making practice.
I could very well be comfortable in my studio dealing only with energy that is positive and hard working.  Teaching does not always bring this energy, but I do my best to support my students while making work- often times alongside them.
On my off day- I run errands and accomplish things that are quick and I can scratch off of my list which leads to a smile every time.  But I also can't help but plan for the next day of teaching. When I do this I often get ideas for my own work and the two processes feed each other.  It reminds me of artists I have not looked at in awhile like Christiane Haase:

and Daniel Agdag: 

Antony Gormley and Louise Bourgeois live in my teaching world each semester and always inform my work. If you have never seen the Art 21 with Louise- please do! It's my favorite. I love the way she touches her work while she speaks.

Teaching allows me to remember how I teach- very hands-on- fun but full of hard work. Fierce integrity and passion allow me to speak my heart and mind in the classroom and people either appreciate that or run from it.

 4th Biennial Western Cast Iron Art Conference hug with Daniel Hunt and Noah Kirby in Laramie, Wyoming.

The most I can do is throw out ideas to the students and see what they catch and what they let go. Tells me a lot about who they are and what/how they want to learn.

Ideas have homes....



Ideas shape who we are and what we stand for.

2019 New Year for art!!!

Locust the Opera 
happened at the National Wildlife art museum in Jackson, Wyoming in September 2018.

It will travel to Agadir, Morocco for the opening for the XIII International Congress of Orthopterology in Agadir, Morocco, March 24- 28, 2019. 

So excited to be a part of this production/adventure.  I designed and helped to create the costumes and set for Locust the opera with integral help from Aaron Strube and Jamie Lindsey.

Dairy Art Center Solo Exhibition

I was blessed to receive a solo exhibition in 2014 at the Dairy Art center in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, and due to renovations it was pushed back until now- and will be up from

May 5-June 11 2017

and I am so please at the response so far.  Rebecca Cuscaden- hardworking curator of visual arts at the Dairy just emailed me and gave me a couple comments for the show:

Hi Ashleyhope,

I found a couple comments about your exhibition in our comment box today and thought I would pass them on to you in case you'd like to see them!

"I'll Fly Away is gorgeous! I love the color, windows and doors, and the shadows. One of my most favorite exhibitions so far! - Laurie"

"To Ashley Carlisle, I am homeless from July 2016 fire and still hunting. Your statement and art piece re-orient my heart/mind. Thanks, Bonnie    P.S. I lost all my artwork too"

Rebecca Cuscaden

Curator of Visual Arts

Dairy Arts Center

303-440-7826 x107

rcuscaden@thedairy.org

www.thedairy.org

Love my job!

Check out CrossPollinators new website!

Check out CrossPollinators new website!

www.crosspollinationexperiment.com

I am still working on this new website but please share as much as possible so google will recognize it!

This group of individuals are amazing and we continue to do things together combining art & science.

2017

Sabbatical has begun and I am off and running.  I have several exciting events coming up.
I just finished 4 new pieces for our faculty exhibition at the Art museum.  I am missing an image of one of the pieces but will grab that as soon as I get permission to photograph in the museum.

This piece is called :

Anniversary of the storm

Laser etched drawings on plastic hung from steel

Welded steel, paper, wood, and cast pewter

cast paper, maple, graphite, and cast iron

sketch for cheated- inspiration..cheat grass taking over our landscape and cheating sagebrush of the mister it needs to survive

More in the studio...

 

 

This piece is a mix of drawing and casting that is a different way of working for me in that I am casting metal in relief and putting it on the wall- literally holding the drawings up. I am excited about the scale of this piece, the materials, the outcome is vivid and clear, heavy and light.

Snowy day…..

I come on and say- so much is going on that I let that stuff stop me from doing what I really want to do- which is communicate to others.  I do that but instead of through my work- I end up on email, the phone  or even worse- texting!
Well now we are socked in weather wise and I get t enjoy my amazing studio even but for an hour!

This is when it is good to be a maker of seeds as I always get to concentrate on objects that need sun and warmth versus what I sometimes see outside of our window- but Im not complaining!  We were due this weather and it is perfect for snowballs!  Thick, wet, and full of moisture to allow me more seeds to work from when its over!  

  

I am starting a new batch of work finally after struggling with the South High project and no word as to its progress- gotta love the government!!  My focus is now on projects I can repeat and create quickly as to gain some instant  gratification.  This is fun because it tells me how good my skills are as to how much less time it takes for me to render something.

 

My students say I make things look easy- but I say after over 20 years I better make it look easy from mere practice!!