Brunch with Ashley G.

Janaina had brunch with Ashley G. a while ago. We are both in love with her work. Whimsical art, that lets your imagination flow, letting you come up with your own story. "Come on in" would have to be my favorite illustration of hers. What's yours? Ready to come up with you own story? Let your imagination flow... 1. Tell us a little about yourself My name is Ashley Goldberg. I'm 25 years old. I live in St. Louis, Missouri with my boyfriend and creative partner in crime, Drew, our cat, Isadora, and a ton of shipping and art supplies. When I'm not at my apartment drawing or making things I can usually be found getting coffee, dragging Drew to thrift stores, or telling myself I am going to clean my apartment (right after this one last episode of the Wire or whatever show we're currently watching on DVD). 2. What is your craft? Mostly I draw, paint, and with the assistance of Drew, create prints from my illustrations that we digitally color. That part is my job (which I love) but if I had more free time there would be more sewing, perhaps more knitting, but definitely more experimenting and learning new crafts. 3. What inspires you? I am hugely inspired by nature, the weather, and the time of year. For me, nothing is more inspiring than an overcast fall day when the leaves are changing and people are just beginning to bundle up. To me, that time of year just feels creative. I am not inspired by a hot, bright summer day. And even if nature isn't always present in my work, it inspires me to get more done. When I can have all the windows open and there is a breeze, or I can draw while I'm outside, I get about 10 times more productive. And of course magazines, vintage children's books, my own childhood memories and fantasies of animals and creatures and talking houses. Childhood camping trips and playing outside. And I love vintage photographs. I like to research images from different times in history. Lately it's been the 1930's and the dust bowl (you can thank Carnivàle). 4. Do you have any advice to give to other indie designers? I wish I had more advice to give, but what I can say: no matter what you do, make the effort to just put it out there. If I waited to feel like everything I was putting out there was perfect or exactly what I was trying to say, I would be frozen and not do anything ever. Be proactive. 5. What is your favorite thing that you have created recently? Oh, that's such a hard question to answer. I have trouble liking anything I do but I have a few limited edition prints that I've done for an upcoming show and I feel pretty good about those. 6. What is the first thing you can remember making by hand? Drawing, drawing, and more drawing and then carving creatures and animals out of bars of soap. Sounds strange but it was really fun even if they never really worked out. 7. Where do you sell and when did you decide to start selling you work? I sell my work on Etsy (ashleyg.etsy.com), Velocity Art and Design (www.velocityartanddesign.com), Artstream Gallery (www.artstreamstudios.com), Shana Logic (www.shanalogic.com), and other brick and mortar shops. 8. Apart from creating things, what else do you enjoy? Ummm… thrifting, reading magazines, and poking around the internet at design, art and craft blogs. Hanging out with my best friend. I would love to travel now that I am self employed but really working and creating things takes up most of my time. 9. What three words would describe you the best? A bit neurotic :) 10. What/Who is your latest indie crush/designer? I am really love everything Christopher Silas Neal does. Guh… his work is amazing. 11. Anything else you would like to say? Thanks so much for this opportunity! You have a great website!