Ashley, Ash—daughter, mama, grandmother, and leaning into future elder.
My creative practice is the loving of folding circles—mostly from paper, but also natural fibers and repurposed materials I gather along the way. I enjoy discovering how the circle, in relationship with its material, reveals a unique quality of movement and pattern.
I fold circles to explore the beauty and complexity of patterns in biological forms, ecosystems, and cultural expression. I’ve always loved pattern—whether in textiles and design, or in the relationship between people and the land shaping one another. I often use textile techniques and ornamentation—felting, dyeing, painting, stitching—to illuminate the form, space and intersections made visible through the folding.
I arrived here through two artist parents and a lifelong need to make sense of the world by making things. Most people call this art. I call it figuring things out the best way I know how. Over the years, this way of working and being has grown into a life shared with others through creativity, connection, and belonging, just as the circle does naturally.
My interest in my father’s exploration of folding circles deepened during my work as a theatre designer. Beginning the design process with the circle always led to elegant solutions—visual, structural, and conceptual. I continue to work with the circle as a way of seeing differently—how materials relate to structure and meaning through an integrated and relational process.
Folding circles shows me that plants, creatures, and the planet itself move together in shifting patterns that change, reform, and remain whole all at once. This practice reminds me I am whole, unconditionally—that everything is connected, and that we are intra-dependent. All of this is revealed in a single folded circle.
I believe that when we listen—deep in our bodies, in quiet and stillness—we can recognize this interdependence as the very fabric holding earth and cosmos together. Like threads. Like fascia. Perhaps even something like love itself.
With roots in California, New Mexico, and the Midwest, I live and fold in the Pacific Northwest—alongside a myriad of life forms and a penchant for exploring the world to meet more.
