Ashley Quick’s “In Good Company” opening Art Reception featured her new art collection of the intersection of culture and ecology within the Mountain West.
“In Good Company is a printmaking exhibition that I’ve been working on since last spring and over the summer, and a little bit in the fall. I received a creative activities grant from the Haas School of Environment and Natural Resources,” Quick said.
“This is an offshoot of what I was originally planning to do for this project. It ended up being about spending summers with my grandma when I was a kid at the firework stand that my grandma ran.”
“This art is the story of how I interacted with nature as a kid, just wandering around right off the side of the highway. What I was thinking about when making it was how human culture and our ecosystems clash in really beautiful ways and clash in bad ways, and integrate those together.”
Quick did printmaking for the first time in 2011 in what she thought was her senior year of college, which ended up being extended two more years.
Quick received her Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from UW in 2014 and has since completed her Master’s degree in Environment and Natural Resources. Quick regularly has exhibits in Wyoming and Colorado and has been featured in exhibitions across the country.
“I just love how physical it is. I do what is called relief printing, which means I have to physically carve all of this into a wood block. Cutting it out on a wood block is very visceral. You are surrounded by shards of wood and it helps strengthen your fingers. It is a very meditative process,” Quick said.
Quick teaches an art process called block printing. Artists design art on hand-cut wooden blocks. The surface of the block is then inked using a dabber or roller. Quick has taught hundreds of students since 2014 and is passionate about using creativity to engage with the community.
“We can be so global and can learn about everything around the world. You can learn more about where you live and the animals that live there and the ecosystem you are a part of. There are all these kinds of ecosystems, like short grass prairie and high altitude desert and you can learn more about where you live and really get into nature and explore and celebrate it,” Quick said.
Quick’s art will be exhibited in the Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center until Jan. 6, and she will be selling pieces in Laramie Plains Civic Center after Thanksgiving.
