the Painting Activist

Now that the “Women of Mass Construction’ exhibit has come down, (and I’ve finally gotten great shoots of each of the portraits) I’m going to feature each woman one-by-one. Consider this your own private, virtual gallery tour. These women certainly deserve the spotlight.

I suppose the best place to start is with my artist’s statement:

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” -Rabindranath Tagore

My life long interest in art-making came to a rather dismal place three years ago when it struck me that art for art’s sake wasn’t enough anymore. At the same time I was beginning to really engage myself in the Louisville community through volunteer work. Through a process as natural as breathing, I soon reignited my love for painting with new meaning: illustrating my developing interest in social issues on canvas.

Soon I launched ashleycecil.com (‘the Painting Activist’), a personal online journal of my artwork related to activism. That initiative blossomed into a multitude of full-time opportunities to share my art for service orientated causes. One such result of this new focus was the idea for a series of celebratory portraits of women who had been touched by a charitable organization.

Art highlighting social and political leaders is abundant. However, the work of these social justice pioneers is rarely expressed through art portraying individuals they impacted. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to meet so many amazing people as a “painting activist,” and through this series I’m honored to introduce you to a handful of them.

With the generous help of many colleagues in our nonprofit community, I have been connected with the beautiful women in this series. Each has shared with me an intimate story, all with endings of positive and pivotal change aided by the services they received from their respective charitable organization.

These women have encouraged me, reminded me not to take life for granted, and reinforced that the most sacred aspects of life are the relationships we foster and nourish. I left every interview feeling that no obstacle in life was insurmountable and that my own seemingly unbearable problems were dwindled to petty inconveniences. I’m incredibly grateful to have crossed paths with and be touched by each of them.

Ashley Cecil

This project is made possible in part with funding from the Kentucky Foundation for Women.