Daily Inspiration: Meet Ashli Kingfisher

As a person who fails to stay in one place, and loves to explore, Ashli is a recent transplant to Salt Lake City. Moving to Utah in 2020 from New York City has been a transition! They have exhibited in New York City, London, New Jersey, San Francisco, and in one special case Sumatra, Indonesia while being a sponsored artist for the International Rhino Foundation. Ashli creates public art in communities and has worked with the National Audubon Society for Audubon Mural Project.

Recently, Ashli and her favorite collaborator, Sarah Soward, finished a Three-year project illustrating The Rhino Sutra, translated by Thanisarro Bhikku, with nearly 100 images! This September, they are orchestrating a community paint for Tracy Aviary’s Jordan River Nature Center, and have been bestowed a barrel to paint for Craftober Fest presented by South Salt Lake Arts Council. And this October she is planning a spooky month-long surprise for her followers online.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The order in which my life has happened is a bit mixed up: I earned my first degree before graduating high school, for example. This way through life makes for challenges and exciting opportunities: Going to school later in life made me appreciate the experience more than I would have if I had been a young adult. I have moved around a bit living on the East Coast for a decade doing art, and working with communities.

The pandemic made us rethink our Bronx home, and after considering many options, the final question was: “What’s not on fire on the West Coast?”(2020) Leading us to Salt Lake City. Now, I find myself trying to find my place as a creative in Utah, and of course, answering my NYC friends and my new SLC friends “Why here?”

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a painter, working with oils indoors and acrylic on walls; I also do my fair share of experimentation with video and photography, digital painting, and more. I think of the work as a way to document consider and frankly sometimes, grieve conservation and ecological destruction. I approach my animal subjects as individuals, not specimens. The animals themselves are mirror for humans. I think of painting animals as a contemporary way to engage the idea of cave painting- a bit of sympathetic magic to ensure the animals return the next day to be hunted.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
The most important thing you can do as a creative is to not compare your journey, and or your success/failures to anyone else. Do not be jealous of your creative compatriots’ wins- The tide raises all boats. Be kind to everyone, and ask a lot of weird questions. Preface your questions with “I am an Artist” I find I get more yesses, and more interesting answers- when I do! Please yourself first, in your work.