Invited artist: ASHLEY HOPE CARLISLE
Memories of and with Galanthus Nivalis
Cast iron, cast paper, pigment, wood
“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.”
– Alfred Austin
My record of wonderment comes from the memories I share with my mother in our garden. Weeding, planting bulbs, playing God with the soil and life around us, I helped organize the earth with my mother as a young girl which has directly influenced my work as an adult woman.
Cast iron can be cold but it can also be transformed into warmth as a form that wants to be touched. Solid and steadfast, it stands for a strength that I hope resides in me and what I can give to those around me. Bulbs bring spring with them and repeat every year as long as they are nurtured.
Ashley Hope Carlisle (American, 1975) is an artist and educator who works within sculpture, drawing, installation, and across disciplines including set design, costume design, and industrial design. Art and science converge in her work to speak about how plants and animals of all types disseminate due to natural causes, environmental change, or instinctual will. Using materials as her vocabulary, she strives to glorify the illusion or false comfort of protection. Utilizing formal concerns, the sensitivity of touch, and luscious materiality, Carlisle produces works that take both roles as visual guidance when confronting the uncomfortable, as well as reassurance when dealing with the inevitable.
​
As an artist, Carlisle has exhibited in Africa, Europe, and across the United States, including the International Sculpture Center in Hamilton, New Jersey. She is a Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship Artist Grant Recipient and has participated in collaborations that have led to a National Science Foundation grant, Wyoming Humanities Council grants, and UW Center for Global Studies Funding.
She is also a founding board member of the Western Cast Iron Art Alliance. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from the University of Georgia and is currently Professor of Art in Sculpture at the University of Wyoming. Ashley Hope is originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, but has comfortably made a home in Laramie Wyoming with her husband David Jones, and their son Dylan Elijah.
​
Website: www.ashleyhopecarlisle.com