Check out Ashley Czajkowski’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Czajkowski.

Ashley, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
When I was a child and I imagined my future, my aspirations cycled between becoming an archeologist, a veterinarian, and an artist. In the end, being an artist proved to be my passion, but if you look at my art practice today, I tend to work with animal bodies and human conditions, so I guess ultimately, I got it all.

I grew up in the rural Midwest, a small town in Kansas called Meriden. There was a cornfield in my backyard and I was nearly always barefoot. It sounds romantic, I think I choose to remember it that way. But nostalgia aside, there is a unique relationship that rural folks have with the land and nature, which heavily influences me as an artist It is certainly contentious, but in some ways, it feels honest. We live off the land, and evidence surrounds us every day that we are just as much a part of the ecosystem as cattle and coyotes.

The desert is unique. I moved to the Phoenix area seven years ago for graduate school at ASU. I’ve since come to love the quiet danger and beauty of this landscape and its inhabitants, but I’m still fascinated in continually learning how humans fit, and don’t fit, in this complex environment.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
The human relationship with nature is a tenuous one. We are at once a part of the natural world, yet intentionally removed from it. I am interested in this disconnect; our refusal as a species to admit that we, too, are animals.

There is a sense of savagery that comes with being an animal, being wild. When we are children we are wild. But as we grow, we are socialized; taught to be “proper” members of adult society. “Don’t put that in your mouth.” “Don’t climb that tree.” “Don’t touch that dead bird.” We learn to experience the world in a very specific way, we are taught to become something other, to become “civilized,” My artwork proposes that there is a loss in this becoming.

It is this form of domestication and because femininity is the gender I learned to perform first-hand, that the relationship of women and nature is highlighted in my artwork. Driven by personal experience, my research explores social constructions of femininity, of our corporeality and the psychological manifestation of the human-animal. Though my work is photography based, I like to stretch the boundaries of my medium through an interdisciplinary approach that includes video, sculpture and installation. All of my work is, in some way, an attempt to reconnect with animal others and our animal selves, a reclamation of our nature, a re-wilding of the human, an attempt at un-becoming.

What do you know now that you wished you had learned earlier?
Take risks and be vulnerable. It is the most difficult, but crucial aspect of finding your true artistic voice. Art in the age of social media is so interesting. Platforms like Instagram can foster artists, but there is also a constantly changing popular aesthetic that I think artists can feel pressured to conform to. I believe that when you are making your work, it’s important to ignore external expectations and trust your own vision.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My work has been exhibited across the United States and internationally, including New Orleans, New York, South Korea, and Rome, Italy. Locally, I have been a member and shown at Eye Lounge gallery and artist collective in downtown Phoenix for the past three years. I love the downtown arts scene, but my favorite part of being an artist here is the expansive art community across the valley. I’ve also had work exhibited at Vision Gallery in Chandler, Art Intersection in Gilbert, Fine Art Complex in Tempe, and Tilt Gallery in Scottsdale.

People can always find my work online at my website, www.ashleyczajkowski.com, and on social media @ashleyczajkowski.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ashleyczajkowski.com
• Email: ashleyczajkowski@gmail.com
• Instagram: @ashleyczajkowski

Image Credit:
All images courtesy of the artist. Copyright Ashley Czajkowski.

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.