By Jonathan Burger, Craven Arts Council & Gallery, Inc.
Ashley McDaniel teaches elementary art education for Craven County Schools and is a long time resident of the area. Ashley works in a variety of mediums, including painting, illustration, digital arts, enameled metals, and much more. Her work has been in a number of gallery exhibitions, and has been featured as the logo for the Hot Buttered Grits, ads for Shop Class, and much more.
Where are you from and why did you make your home here in New Bern?
My parents moved our family from Fayetteville, NC to New Bern when I was four years old. We moved into a 1950’s era house in Riverside right on the Jack Smith Creek. I moved away to go to college, first ECU then transferred to APP State where I received my Bachelor of Fine Art and later my art education teaching certificate. After graduation I ended up staying in Boone for several more years until moving back to New Bern in 2014.
How did you get started in art?
Art has always been my “thing”. I’ve been interested in it since I was a really little kid. My parents always encouraged me to find what I love and to do it. When I was 12 years old I ran into the work of Renee Magritte and something in me clicked. This quiet surrealist artist was saying things I wanted to say. I wanted to paint like this man, I wanted to refine my skills and be able to execute the imagery as he did and make people feel the things that I felt looking at his work when they looked at mine. He was my first favorite artist and inspiration.
Is there a theme to your work, or several themes?
My work definitely aligns with surrealism in its imagery, not so much the automation side but the use of juxtaposition or combining seemingly incongruous images into one piece to conjure new impressions or meanings from them. My work is highly influenced by nature; the flora and fauna that surrounded me while living in the mountains resonate with me and I find my connection with them serves my work well. I’ve most recently combined these interests with the aesthetic of art nouveau. The elegance, pattern and methodical nature of art nouveau, specifically Alphonse Mucha’s work, along with its organic motifs are highly appealing to me and have made their way into my work in a big way. It has given me a new appreciation for illustration as I have turned more and more to pen and ink.
I know you teach for Craven County Schools, do you see a relationship between your teaching and the work you make?
I often use artists or artwork that I’m interested in as the basis for some of my lesson plans. For example, I became pretty fascinated with the Dogu statues of ancient Japan during the Jomon period. They are some of the oldest examples of clay figures in the world. The aesthetic and mystery behind those figures is quite intriguing. Some look like they could have been made in the modern and post modern eras. I’ve used this as a basis for a clay figure project with my 4th-5th graders. This brings enthusiasm to my lessons and deepens my interests as well. Some of these interests have made their way directly into my work but all of them have helped inspire me both as an educator and as an artist.
You use a variety of mediums, and I know you’ve done jewelry work in the past. Do you have a favorite medium, or particular way you like to work?
It is so hard to pick a favorite medium. I have a tendency to move from one medium to another. I suppose its restlessness or curiosity, but I’m always looking at other mediums as opportunities to refine or redefine my artistic voice. I really enjoy mixed media where my skills combine to create one unique piece. In the past I’ve delved into so many, I’ve developed an interesting toolbox. Lately, I’ve taken a turn back into painting. I’ve been using gouache for the first time since highschool. Wish me luck, its proven to be a bit more challenging than I first expected.
Speaking of mediums, is there a medium or technique you haven’t had a chance at you’d like to try?
I’ve always wanted to try my hand at glass casting. When I was as Appalachian State we had a visiting artist who co-taught a glass casting class. The spots filled up quickly and I wasn’t able to get in but the medium fascinated me. I like working three dimensionally and with my interest in enamel, watching glass transform into a melted plastic state is and was very appealing.
Is there a special piece ,award, or exhibition you’re particularly proud of?
The piece I did for the one year anniversary of Hurricane Florence show at the Bank of the Arts is one that I’m very proud of. That hurricane was like a great equalizer. There wasn’t one person in our town that wasn’t affected by it. The piece I made was an oil painting on drywall that I collected from a damaged house. The house depicted belonged to a close friend and his family. The high water mark in the painting is relatively close to where the water came up in their home. They lost nearly everything. I spent several days helping them gut the place only to find out that it couldn’t be salvaged at all. I’m really proud of that piece. It meant a great deal personally, and I was happy to lend my skills and voice to a town just recovering from the worst effects of the storm. Though the devastation was great, my friends pulled through and have started over in a new house where, by all reports, everything is going really well.
Is there any artist in your field or any other that inspires you or whose work you admire?
As mentioned before, Magritte and Mucha have been really huge in helping me define my concept and aesthetic. Andy Kehoe, a young painter out of Philadelphia has been another huge inspiration. I found his work at a time when I felt particularly unproductive. Whenever this happens, I try to find interesting art rabbit holes to follow on the internet to see if anything strikes a chord, too see if anything can move me out of the rut. When I saw Andy’s work my first thought was, “This guy is saying what I’m trying to say,” I felt an affinity for what he was doing. His work combines fine art painting skills with whimsical and sometimes dark illustrations. His characters inhabit a world of their own. They’re silent and stoic yet narrative and emotive. He combines these opposites so eloquently. His brother, Ben, is a painter and has some interesting work as well.
I love it when I find an artist that intrigues me. What appeals to me in other artists is a certain feeling I get from their work. Nearly all that I admire have a quiet profundity and execute their work with careful and measured techniques. Great painters like Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper have always been at the top of my list. There’s a sadness in the quiet places of their work, and within that silence there is some piece of our humanity that longs to whisper instead of shout, where meaning emerges softly but trembling.
In one sentence, what is art to you?
Art is what happens when ideas and action converge so well that we remember the commonality of our collective human spirit.
I know your work is featured on the cloth masks at Bank of the Arts, where else can people find your work?
At the moment I don’t have anything in public but you can find my work in my online Threadless and Society 6 shops. And, as always, I’m always open for commissions, haha.
https://ashlayne.threadless.com/
https://society6.com/ashleylayne8