About ashley C. shapiro

I'm a Mystic Expressionist with a woman's unique vision and perspective. My work creates intimate spaces which promote an atmosphere for relaxation, meditation, peacefulness and healing. I'm inspired by the conflicting forces of darkness and light, both metaphorically and literally.

I am deeply grateful for the gifts that my grandmother, Janet Sobel, shared with me--her total freedom with paint and forms and her creation of many revolutionary techniques. Remarkably, she did not begin to paint until she was in her forties--after she had already raised 5 children.

Her work attracted the attention of the greats of her time and her home became a salon with visitors like John Dewey, Max and Jimmy Ernst, and so many others--writers, sculptors, gallery owners, art critics, and well-known artists. She had one woman shows in NYC in the galleries of Sidney Janis and Peggy Guggenheim.  Her art is represented in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

Grandma Jenny was my babysitter and I remember as a three year old, painting with her. If I close my eyes I can still see the vivid colors that she used; they still make my heart sing. I watched in wonder as she blew paint onto canvas with a vacuum cleaner hose, built textures out of sand, extended the painting beyond the canvas and onto the frame, outlined figures on the glass enclosing the painting, and splattered paint from on high (techniques which Jackson Pollock learned by attending her shows and studying her art works) all marshaled in the creation of magical fantasy worlds. 

These early memories are indelibly inscribed in my mind and heart; they inform my present work in creating my own visionary worlds.