Artist Ashley Showalter is an Oklahoma City–based painter whose work is rooted in mental health, identity, and the process of translating internal experience into visual form.

She began painting during a mental health hospitalization, when creating became a way to understand what was happening in her own mind.

In this interview, Ashley shares how that moment shaped her practice, what she recognized in her early work that made her continue, and how her process evolves alongside her emotional and psychological state.

This is part of Hyvemind’s Artist Stories, a series focused on the relationship between creative practice, identity and the systems that shape how we see ourselves.

Read More About Ashley: https://www.thehyvemind.com/self/when-the-system-offered-no-answers-ashley-showalter-drew-her-own

Visit Ashley’s Website: https://www.urfavtrash.com/