Ash Stone

Project Statement

Living The Dream revisits memory with agency to question inheritance and generational ways of being. By playing in the space between pride and shame, I use industrialized food, like hot dogs, to grapple with the absurdity of Americanization and lost identity. This work is guided by my vast archive of family photographs, as I study my own role as a photographer and homemaker. By creating a dining room based on memories growing up in rural Texas, I am using this space to personally reassociate and process traumatic memory, and to create space for safety, healing, play, and joy. Living The Dream asks: What rituals and roles do we honor? What cycles do we break?

Artist Statement

Ash Stone (she/they) is a queer, mixed-latinx interdisciplinary artist using ideas of humor and absurdity to investigate personal and cultural identities. She practices play as a method of healing. Ash uses photography, video, installation, performance, and zines to critique cultural norms in America. Her practice is driven by activism, community building, collaboration, and creating accessibility to art and education.

About Ash Stone

Ash holds a BFA in photography from the University of North Texas, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Visual Studies at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. In 2019, Ash was a founding member of the Take Care Collective, a Texas-based artist initiative with the mission of bringing awareness to mental health issues, promoting sustainability, and supporting local artists.

MFA in Visual Studies