ashleyperezart@gmail.com
Website: https://ashleyperezart.weebly.com/
5611 Wild Plum, San Antonio, TX, 78222
Ashley Perez is a Texas-based artist who works in a variety of mediums that center around painting and drawing. Her work explores memory, identity, and mental health by personifying elements of the natural world and wordplay. Perez is an alumnus of the national-award-winning creative youth development program SAY Sí. She received her B.F.A. from the University of Texas at San Antonio in painting in 2010. Currently, she runs SAY Sí’s visual arts middle school and high school programs, mentoring the next generation of creative leaders. Her work has been featured at Centro de Artes, Blue Star Contemporary, the McNay Art Museum, and Presa House Gallery. I explore memory, identity, and mental health by personifying elements of the natural world and wordplay. I enjoy finding different connections between animals like birds, fish, elephants, these animals' homes, and my own experiences. This, combined with their incredible textures, guide each composition. My paintings, drawings, and mixed media work often start with wordplay or an animal trait that I idealize and magnify to suit my needs. For example, a waterfowl can be a subject to navigate a foul memory or a hummingbird as a request to slow down. As my work evolves, community involvement has deepened my creative practice.
