Artist Convo

Art Melvin

About the artist:

Ashling Murray (They/Them)

Psychology Undergraduate

Interests: Original characters, sketches, unfinished artwork

Ideas best explored are gifts for people so relating their likes and dislikes into the pieces of art that are being created are usually incorporated. Finished products are usually gifts/commissions

Looking at the piece provided, I would say that it is a visual representation of the character or person Ashling was hired to commission. It is very “loud” in the sense of many aspects included marijuana themed characters that reflect the commission’s personality and interests which include being high and smoked out. The form of the art is digitally created, formed using Paint Tool SAI as well as their computer and has a darker color scheme to it besides the red hair resembling the red hair from the little mermaid. The texture is overall smooth and is relative to the scaling of a screen.

Content analysis

Ashling mentioned how this piece was commissioned by someone they didn’t really know very well so it was a bit harder having to go forth with this artwork, especially since it was inspired by Disney. They typically receive their inspiration from in person interactions since they are able to see what the person they’re basing their art off, especially since a large majority of their art is character based. Aside from that, they like to work on sketches and often begin new sketches before finishing ones that were being worked on. Different pieces receive different inspiration from a vast majority of places whether it be people based or surrounding based in which new ideas are able to be formed and be explored.

Synthesize

The exhibit in which Ashling was able to display brought me much joy and happiness to see a variance in artwork. Typically Disney is seen as something to be cherished from a childhood memory but seeing something different as such in the piece provided, it brought a bit of amusement into my day. The formal nature of this art piece as well as the others are slightly different than what I typically imagine when I visualize art, however I was still able to resonate with it because it was so much more different. I would love to see more of their artwork and art style in our society, especially in this climate in which everything seems so serious and tense. In this piece specifically, I was not really able to relate to the character that was commissioned who inhales/digests weed but for other pieces they were really able to catch my attention and feel me as a person as well as my student life.