I’m really just a girl who loves beautiful things, soft animals, catchy music, falling in love with places that I want to move to, listening to my daughter sing, watching my son laugh, watching my other son play any instrument known to man, and play well. I love maximism, color, and pattern. I love my friends and have an open door policy. I love my community. I love all things Mexican and all things French and when the 2 come together it is truly magic. I love that my husband is my biggest fan. I love the New York City Flower Market. I love Pierpaolo Piccioli and everything he designed for Valentino and now Balenciaga. I got to touch one of his couture creations once and I cried. I love Jonathan Anderson and think we would most likely be best friends. I love Daniel Roseberry for the Texan in me being proud of him for making it all the way to meca of Schiaperelli. I love Paris probably more than anywhere else in the world. I am constantly inspired by Doctor Cooper and her sculptural botanical art. I can walk into a room and feel like I might never be able to catch my breath bc of the beauty. I love my parents who are still married 57 years later. I love our 4 cats endlessly and think they are most definitely conversing with me.
For nearly twenty years, I was a florist. Flowers were my medium and creativity was my livelihood. Then a head-on collision nearly killed me and left me unable to continue the physical work of being a florist.
During my recovery, people brought me flowers.
I began photographing them with my iphone4.
That simple act became a new way of seeing and eventually an entirely new creative life. My photographs became art, my art became pattern, and my work found its way onto walls and into homes around the world.
I became known for dark, moody floral imagery, but I have never thought of myself as simply a floral photographer or a wallpaper designer. Those are things I have made. They aren’t the entirety of who I am.
At my core, I am a visionary.
I see possibilities. I see connections between things that may not obviously belong together. I am constantly imagining what something could become: a photograph, a room, a pattern, a dress, a dinner, a journey, a business, an experience.
Sometimes the idea arrives long before I have any clue how I’m going to make it happen. I’ve learned to trust that part of myself.
My creativity has changed forms many times throughout my life, but the instinct behind it has never changed. I am always looking. Always noticing. Always collecting ideas.
I believe beauty can be powerful. I believe our surroundings affect the way we feel. I believe personal style is far more interesting than following rules. And I believe creativity isn’t something reserved for artists. It is a way of moving through the world.
Maybe that isn't the simplest answer to the question, Who is Ashley Woodson Bailey?
I am an artist. A mother. A wife. A friend. An animal lover. A traveler. A collector of beauty. A student of art, fashion, interiors, architecture and flowers.
But more than anything, I am someone who has spent her life imagining what could be.
And then finding a way to make it real.