ABOUT THE ARTIST

Ashley Hope Carlisle is Associate Professor of Art in Sculpture at the University of Wyoming.  She has taught at UW for the past 19 years and has created art in the form of sculpture and drawing for 22 years. As an artist, Ashley has been the recipient of the ISC Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, has exhibited all over the United States, Europe, and Africa and was chosen as a Fellowship Artist Grant Recipient by the Wyoming Arts Council for 2007.  She is active in art and science communities and continues to find inspiration in plants of every kind.  Ashley Hope is originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, but has comfortably made a home in Laramie Wyoming with her husband David Jones, and their son Dylan Elijah.

To learn more visit ashleyhopecarlisle.com

FROM THE ARTIST

Even though Hard-edge geometric abstract paintings have been around for a long time, today they still seem to both provoke and intrigue the viewer.
My use of small Hard-edge paintings are meant to provide a somewhat personal scale for the viewer without them being overwhelming.

It’s the duality of things that I like. I like the straight line, it has a beauty of its own that can show you from the complex to the very simple. For me, abstracting and condensing a painting to its line, color, shape and space can give it both a sense of ambiguity with clarity at the same time.

I’m intrigued by the use of spare geometric designs with balance and opposition and crisp, contrasting and flat color compositions.

I’m attempting to give the viewer a visual experience and also have them feel a response.

My paintings are not meant to be representative of anything, but they may contain ideas about the nature of space on a flat, two-dimensional plane; however, I do like to have fun with them and take great liberties with my titles.Uplift

Alice came to the bottom at last and ran along a passage into the large hall.  A little door led to a lovely garden but Alice was too big to get through.  Then she saw a bottle on a glass table and on the label was written: DRINK ME.

“Perhaps I shall shut up like a telescope,” said Alice, taking a drink-and she did!

Lewis Carroll

Alice in Wonderland

We are asked and at times volunteer to make a transition, to disseminate from one place to another or from one moment to another. Imagine as a child and place yourself mentally within a milkweed seed being dispersed by chance or by choice.

There is no end, but a constant movement towards something.

We often travel away from what could be considered “home”: people, geography, known flavors, towards a new life experience.   Leaving home for the first time, fleeing from a natural disaster, or sometimes from circumstances beyond our control can often cause strife or anxiety within our world.

Imagine yourself as a seed taking flight by the wind and find strength as it plants itself in a new place.

Remember this moment as you are making a transition in your lives and positively reflect on the journey and experience itself versus where it may end. Transitions are an important part of our world and to anticipate their existence is to accept how wonderful they can be.