We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ash Evans. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ash below.

Ash , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

The first dollar I ever earned as a creative I was about 9 years old. My grandmother was very into crafting and did many high-profile local craft shows. She did beautiful floral arrangements and wreaths as well as holiday-type crafts. She knew I had talent and employed me to tole paint items for a Christmas bazaar. Prior to that, she paid for me to take a few crafting classes at a local studio, and one of the lessons was a starfish Santa ornament. I spent an entire weekend with her making the ornaments, and she helped me with the hot glue gun. She was a flurry of glitter and packing things into bins while I methodically painted those Santas. She took me with her to the show, saying it was important to show my work, and I watched what she did to make sales. My first ornament sold, and she had me take credit for the work, handle the money, and pack it up for the customer. I remember being so happy knowing it would be on someone’s tree that year. She taught me a lot about the selling side of art and also charged me a “booth fee” at the end of the show (it was a dollar) to teach me that these things cost money and it is very time-consuming and expensive to do them. I credit her for a lot of encouragement in my life. Even when she lost her memory to an aging illness, she would say on a loop to me how proud she was of me and how talented I was. Even if that’s all she ever remembered, that is what she held on to, and that has really been something I have held onto throughout the years. She was the last person to ever say she was proud of me, and I am glad to have had her in my corner. I know it’s not a high profile art gallery sale, but that moment shaped me into the person I am today.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hi, I am Ash Evans! I am an East Coast-based (USA) artist and designer. I am currently a one-woman show. In addition to creating both traditional and digital paintings, I also design unique toys, apparel accessories, statuary, and other gift items. I love the creative process behind both of these different but complementary skill sets. My favorite things are black cats and Halloween. I also have a passion for character-driven design. I would love to develop my personal characters further in the future.

Like most creatives, I have always had an interest in the arts. I started making money with my talent at a very young age. I started professionally a little later in life, as I was constantly told I would never make a living as an artist. I didn’t really make a go at it until my mid-20s. In 2007, with the encouragement of my fiancee (now husband), I began my art career in earnest, starting in watercolor and oil painting and then expanding into mixed media works. Soon I was licensing my images, and through that experience I gained knowledge in the manufacturing process. I insisted on being very hands-on and would only sign contracts that gave me tight control and approvals. One of my first big licenses was for resin statuary. We did a run of 6 designs, and they did so well they wanted to expand rapidly. Unfortunately, the company took a financial hit, and the second series was canceled even though we had already done the rendered designs and prototypes. The company decided to generously give me the molds and the access to the manufacturers and said I could do them myself if I wished. It was a big swing, but I went for it. That process got me hooked on product design and manufacturing, and I am entering my 18th year of overseas manufacturing experience.

I am most known for my cat art and Halloween designs. I really do enjoy painting felines (I have many rescue kitties, most of them all black) and have a background in vet med. I find fur, feathers, and scales much more interesting texturally than human skin. I have a weird obsession with painting black fur. Most people aren’t big fans of that, but there is something in the way you can play with it and how the light reacts to it that I find very calming. They are my living drapery studies, I think. I am very interested in animal anatomy and putting creatures in whimsical situations.

A personal hobby of mine is antique and vintage Halloween art and collectibles, and that does spill into my design work quite a bit. I do love the mid-mod era especially. I feel like with art I get to make things of beauty, and with design I get to make whimsical things you can use. So much art is don’t touch! Design lets people hold the things I am creating and have them be a part of their everyday life, and I think that is really special. Having a split focus can cause whiplash with some people, but for me it lets me explore different things I wouldn’t normally do if I was focused solely on painting. I feel like artists today need to look beyond prints and originals to maintain any sort of livable income, and my sincere advice to anyone looking into a career in the arts is to also take business classes. That foundation will put you in a much better situation right out of the gate instead of fumbling around trying to figure it out after you get some traction.

I do have some big projects that I am starting to ruminate on for the future, including my first tarot deck. I like the challenge of interpreting something so well known in a new way and by the sheer size of the project itself. 78 images is no small thing, that is for sure. I also feel like there are so many decks out there that I personally should not speak unless I can improve upon the silence, so I am taking my time before throwing myself into the project. I want things to be accurate and interesting and to have my own style.

My work isn’t highbrow; I don’t have galleries chasing me down for shows, but it makes people happy. That is my entire purpose in life—to just spread joy. Art doesn’t have to be unattainable, expensive, or just match your couch. It should inspire you or at least make you feel something when you look at it. I just want to put joy out into the world, especially now when people need it the most. I want to be remembered as someone who spread whimsy and fun. I hope I can continue on as an artist for as long as I am able and make the world a more magical place.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The largest crucible for me, both personally and professionally, just happened last year. It was spring, and out of nowhere, a black lightning bolt appeared in my vision. Just one day while riding in the car, it was there. I went to the doctor immediately; they were initially stumped, and there was a possibility I could have gone blind in my left eye. I am already legally blind in my right eye and suffer from visual snow syndrome, which looks like TV static 24/7 in my vision, so my left does most of the work. My legal blindness and visual snow weren’t new; that is just something I dealt with my entire career. I just use large canvases or digital ones so I can zoom in as much as I possibly can. Stress-related issues compounded the problem, and while I can still see it can be challenging under normal circumstances, the bolt faded and would sometimes appear again as a flash of lightning. I named the anomaly Barry Allen (The Flash), and I do my best to tolerate him and it when it comes back to surprise me from time to time. Stress really seems to trigger these issues, and I have had to make a lot of lifestyle changes.

Grappling with not only the issues that caused the visual disturbances but also the constant threat of my entire career vanishing overnight was almost unbearable. It was a terrifying place to reside for months on end. Last year I had to just stop everything without warning and try and not go blind. No painting, no reading, and very limited screen time. It was 6 months before I could do much, and I am very much now just trying to get back to normal. When I was down and out, things just started to erode. My socials screeched to a halt, and Patreon Patrons exited. People unsubscribed and checked out. Every time I checked there was less and less. The orders became fewer and fewer. It was humbling to see how easily I could be discarded, forgotten. No one wants an artist who can’t paint. I lost a ton of income, and I am still not back where I need to be to just exist comfortably. I still get harassed on socials for not outputting like I used to. I appreciate the misplaced enthusiasm, but I am doing the best I can.

There was a point when I wanted to just quit and do something else, but I knew deep down this is what I am meant to do. I am still fighting my way through all of this a year later, trying to recapture my skills that languished and get people to notice me again. I am working to try and balance everything so this doesn’t happen again. I am grateful to still be here, painting at all. I am most grateful to the patrons, especially those who kept me afloat while I navigated these issues.

What I did learn is hustle culture is toxic, and to take a break before the break takes you. There is no honor in wearing yourself down to nothing. It is not sustainable even if it’s working for you right now. The prize in the bottom of that cereal box is burnout. Seeing my life without my art career made me see past the chaos that I allowed in my life and prioritize my peace. Every brushstroke I make from this point on is a miracle, and I will treat it as such.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

If you just make art solely to please other people, you will paint yourself into a box and burn out.

For a good while I fell into a comfortable rut of making products and paintings that would simply please the masses. I would do yearly conventions and sort of be required to continue a series year after year to keep them coming back. I cared what social media thought. I let people’s comments drive what I did next. In the swirl of those years I lost my voice and became very burned out on painting the same things over and over again. I kind of never want to see another cat in a teacup, even though people loved them and collected them all. (If that is you, I am so sorry!!)

Between my vision issues and burnout, I knew what I was doing was not sustainable. I had to do something to begin the path to change. So this year I did something radical and discontinued ALL of my old artwork. Just gave a little warning, and then poof! Gone. It was extreme, and I am fortunate to have products that I design to keep the money coming in, but I really wasn’t sure what else to do to break the habit. I also stepped back big time from socials. I began refocusing on skills that are for me, and I don’t post them for the masses to have an opinion about. It would be so easy to backslide into bad habits. So here I am, first interview in a very long time with a blank slate. That is kind of exciting, and I hope people follow me to see what I do next.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ashevans.com
• Instagram: ashevansart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AshEvansArt
• Twitter: We don’t go to the bad place
• Other: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AshEvans
  Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2tejtkpwqzvmkqty7lf35dca
  TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ashevansart

Image Credits

All images are my sole property and were taken by myself or my husband Johnnie Evans and published with his permission.