We recently connected with Ashley Hagen and have shared our conversation below.
Ashley, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I learned the craft of being an artist, interior designer, and educator little by little over the years through experience, living, watching, experimenting, and playing. I also learned a great deal from my art mentors and professors and my educational background. I received my BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and my MFA from California state university Northridge. I also learned from my mom and dad. From the time I was a toddler I watched my parents design and build their dream house. I watched my dad work on cars and my mom deal with her interior design clients. I watched Bob Ross on TV and experimented with paint and pigments and building things on my own. I have always had an endless desire to learn and push the boundaries of materials and how things “should be done.”
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?
After high school I attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to study Fine Arts. I focused mainly on painting, printmaking, fiber arts and woodworking. In 2003 I moved from Chicago to Los Angeles. A friend of mine at the time had just purchased a fixer upper in the up-and-coming neighborhood of Silver Lake. I went to see the house and gave him a lot of suggestions of what he could do. He said, “You sound like you know what you are doing, I’ll pay you $750 to design my house.” I did and that project led from one project to another when I realized this was no longer a hobby, so started my interior design business Mod Décor, which I still have to this day.
In addition to Mod Décor, I have my art studio practice, I teach part time at USC Roski School of Art and Design, and I’m a mother of two, my daughter aged 7 and my son aged 9.
I used to try and keep my art creation and my design business separate from each other. It was almost like a secret to my design clients that I had an art practice, and I wouldn’t mention anything about my design business to the “art world,” until I went back to grad school in 2010. While in grad school I was still working on several design projects. I spent a lot of time on construction sites, and I had learned over the years a lot about building materials. I have always been amazed by construction ever since I was a little girl and saw my parents’ house being built from the ground up. It was fascinating to me the process of building a foundation and walls that would be covered in drywall and turned into a home. I decided to combine my interest of the design world and these materials into my art.
Growing up my mom also had an interior design business called Hagen House Interiors. She had a van that she would drive around town to meet with clients full of carpet, fabric, and wallpaper samples. Often these samples would become discontinued, and she would give them to me to use in my beloved dollhouse. I never really played with dolls in my dollhouse, but I was constantly redesigning it. Velvet fabric would become carpet in miniature scale, and the little pattern wallpaper that would match the larger print would adorn the walls. My love of miniatures, design and construction started at an early age and continues to be a passion in my work today.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of all three of my jobs are basically the same. For my design clients, it’s the joy homeowners feel when their home is transformed into a space that they are proud of and never knew the potential and how happy they would be in the end. For my students it’s the excitement and proud feeling that they accomplished something on their own they never thought was possible, and for me and creating a new work, it’s the satisfaction of having an idea come to fruition.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I am driven by the challenge of creative problem solving, and the need to constantly create something new in response to my life and surroundings. My work often references time, memory, and childhood fantasy. Watching my two kids grow up has added a new dynamic to my work. I started using things that I have around the house such as puffy paint, or used wooden toys they no longer play with. I’m constantly evaluating my current situation as a mom, artist, educator, and designer and redirecting and using materials I’m surrounded by. For example, I made a sculpture in response to my love of gardening, motherhood, and the plethora of design samples I’m constantly working with. The end results used metal stakes for tomato plants, pantyhose, concrete, wood, wood veneer, puffy paint, concrete, and wallpaper.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ashleyhagen.com
- Instagram: ashleyhagenart