We were lucky to catch up with Ashley Greer recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, thanks for joining us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

I came up with the idea for MetaFleurs News, a news organization for creatives at the crossroads of culture x politics x power because as a florist for over two decades I was struggling to have my intelligence and world observations be taken seriously.

I kept feeling that because I did not have an official title or work in the military or in politics, or the sciences that my voice was not being heard, and felt and still do feel that my opinion has relevance and value.

Are artists not the original propagandist after all? Is a picture not worth a thousand words?

I was sure that if I felt this way, there must be many other creatives, who felt this was as well and so I decided to create a platform where we could be more than just our craft.

Admittedly MetaFleurs News is still in its infancy and I am working to fully build the platform before focusing on bringing in new talent. But the vision to have Artists of all different media share their perspective on the world and be a place where they can be seen and validated as people of intelligence is the driving goal.

The idea finally took culmination after months of submitting my work to a different “News Organization” that accepted one of my articles and then rejected every single idea after. The fact that they had accepted one article made me feel as if all the other articles just hadn’t been good enough, that my new ideas weren’t good enough, that I wasn’t good enough. That is absolutely devastating for a “young” journalists, and it almost silenced me. Almost. Eventually I came to realize that there were more complicated issues at play, and that didn’t have anything to do with the worthiness of my thoughts.

I also had the experience of feeling like if I wasn’t a florist then people would take me seriously. This made me really mad, and I thought well if they won’t let me join them, I can just start your own News Organization for people, artists like me.

Ashley, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I got into writing, editing, and the news because I have a voice inside my head that demands to be quiet and a curiosity that is absolutely incorrigible and incurable. No matter what the topic is, I want to know Why? Why? Why? Couple that with my adoration for words, also known as a logophile, and an insistent internal demand for expression.

For most of my life I did not stay current on world news or politics, but when I had my son (now almost 10), that changed. Suddenly what happened in the world mattered, because this was the world that my child was going to have to live in and become subject to. My first “News” article that was published, the one I am still so proud of was on the military and my hopes that if we can get enlistment up, we can avoid a draft. My reasons are selfish, I want to protect my son (unless serving in the military is something he chooses to do, which hard as that would be, I would support).

MetaFleurs News is also designed in a format that I think other artists can relate to and absorb more easily then the brutality of just black and white print. We have poetry and pictures and color and art.

Validation as a value for artists cannot be overstated enough. I have found as an artist that even though I have learned how to stand in my work, there is still a lot of insecurity around, “is this good enough? Am I good enough.”

By providing a platform for other artists and creatives to post their world views I hope to help fuel their confidence, all while driving more traffic to their individual platforms, events, and social media.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The goal of MetaFleurs News is to be at the center of Culture x Politics x Power and be a home and a hub for artist to express their world views, political art and receive the validation that they are worthy of respect as intellectuals not just artists.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn is not trusting the opinion of someone else just because they are “senior” to you. When I was first transitioning to journalism I had a friend and mentor I looked up to very much. I believed that his dismissals of my ideas were fact, law, and valid. They were not. What his actual motives were are unclear and I won’t speculate, I can only say that they almost worked. He almost silenced my inner spark. So the advice would be to be very careful of who you trust with your tender blossoming thoughts, and seek multiple outside sources. If I hadn’t been focused on being loyal to him and his orginzation, I would have pitched my “time sensitive” stories to other Editors and News Outlets. Perhaps they would have been published in real time and could have made a difference in someones life

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.metaflowersfineart.com
• Instagram: @flowerashleydc
• Other: 2nd Instagram @metasleursdc_news

Image Credits

All photos are MetaFleurs, Ashley Greer