Avant Guardians

By Leticia Gonzales

From impulse to career

Self-taught artist aims to create likeable characters

For Ashley Siehler, a 28-year-old freelance artist from Kasota, art didn’t always come naturally. In fact, she first used it as an outlet as a teenager as a form of storytelling.

“I was initially more interested in writing the stories, with art as a supplement or to work out details,” she said. “Eventually, the art won over the writing, and I didn’t come to terms with that until my mid-20s.”

Although she hasn’t had any formal art training, Siehler took a few drawing classes in college.

“Everything else I picked up from practice, books and the internet.”

She also picked up a lot of skills by way of observing other artists online and through tutorials.

“As I learned more and more, I could pick out what they had done in my favorite books and tried incorporating that into my own work,” she said. “There’s a history in my work where you can trace the influence of so many other artists here and there, as well as personal experiments and discoveries through happy accidents.”

Siehler specializes in ink and alcohol markers, but she also has experience using watercolor, gouache, acrylic and natural pigments such as coffee and walnut ink.

“It entirely depends on what effect I want to achieve.”

Her storytelling abilities are also intertwined with her larger pieces of art.

“I want to create characters that are likable and engaging, or I focus on conveying a mood or moment,” Siehler said. “I struggle to find the patience for the hardlines and angles that buildings would entail; I really prefer organic and free-flowing shapes found in nature. I’ve got some really romanticized and idyllic views on nature and love to incorporate that when I can, be it animal and human friendships or characters connecting to the earth. In that vein, I also borrow a lot of folk art styles from the Pennsylvania Dutch, Germans and Slavic peoples.” She has also found inspiration from the land where she lives in Kasota. “I moved here in the summer of 2019 and live on some acres of reclaimed prairie, hardwood forests, and wetlands. It’s a beautiful little oasis surrounded by farmland and it’s the home of a lot of wild neighbors. I’m always noticing new changes to the scenery or a new animal visitor. Nearly every day I walk the trails and have more ideas than time.”

Her work has been shown at the Union Market in Mankato, as well as at various craft and art shows, including the Maker Fair in St. Peter and at multiple River Valley Makers events.

“A lot of the evolution in my work has come from being able to devote more time to it,” she said. “In the early years, it was a hobby or an impulse done in between college classes and my 30 hours a week of retail work to pay for college. When post-graduate job hunting was failing, it became an outlet and a way to make a bit of extra money. I never had the time to really think about what I was making. It was impulsive or just to get an idea down.

“Now that it’s become my career, I have the time to spend being thoughtful and intentional with my work.”