As a child, I was like,
I want to be an artist when I grow up and I love to create.
So I would go outside and I will find rocks
and I would get a screwdriver and a hammer and I would like chisel stuff in rocks
and I would just do things because creating made me feel like
I can take nothing and make something.
I am Ashley Nora
and I am a visual artist, sculptor, muralist,
inspirational speaker, motivator, and I'm originally
from a really small town called Laurel, Mississippi, and I've been here
since I was 17 years old in Indianapolis, Indiana.
I do love this on the outside.
It's amazing.
I love this space.
Well, yeah.
So tell me, actually,
now that we're in here at the P30, which there's a whole complex, is amazing.
Like what an opportunity.
Oh, my gosh.
It's when I walked in the doors, I was flabbergasted.
This is my sacred space to work.
I knew that I wanted a space where
I can remind myself of how far I've come.
I had this wall dedicated, especially in a space that I'm working,
and I might have a creative block Ashley look what you've done.
And you want to get better.
You don't want to just be average, you know?
I want to leave behind a legacy like my grandmother,
who I named my business after Nora.
She was the one I used to speak life.
And to me, Nora means light.
And it's just like Ashley's light she's always with me.
It's like, I love this idea. I really do.
I want people to, like, feel that permission of, like,
you need to have your little moment in your corner.
Whatever it is, it just has to be big, but like,
something that just gets you going.
I grew up not having a lot, but even though
financially we were poor, I still had, you know, family support.
And, you know, I got a chance to see really
what's most important outside of the material things is family and love.
I remember one time talking to someone that I met in
my eyes was really successful, and I know that they really cared about me.
And I just told them like, I love art, you know?
And even though my childhood is pretty terrible
and I'm stressed out all the time, seven, eight years old with anxiety
and depression, to help me stay focused
and to get out of my nervous system going crazy.
I drew we didn't have a lot of resources.
I didn't didn't have canvas or anything.
But I love to create.
After Hurricane Katrina hit, we came here to Indiana,
and then I decided, you know what,
I'm about to go to college and I want to get to the science degree.
I love math. I love science.
And I became an analytical chemist and I was a chemist and I was making money.
You know, I'm like.
Yes. In my whole life, I was made to believe that once you worked
so hard all these years and your mind is on this money
and you have the material things that you need,
you're going to be happy.
I wasn't happy.
I had all the things that they said that I would do.
But inside of me, I think the only thing that made me
happy was turning nothing into something.
And yes, I turned my situation of nothingness
into something, but it wasn't something that I wanted.
So I made a decision.
What's more important, Ashley?
Is it the money or is it your happiness?
Is it your peace?
I quit my job.
Almost four years later.
I've never went back. Never had to.
And now I have happiness.
I have peace.
And I'm not a struggling artist.
Tell me about this one. This significant.
This is right here. This me so much.
This is called the Phoenix and the Rose in me doing this.
Eat made me when I cried painting this picture
but it made me see myself in such a different light.
Now I've always painted other people.
I've never painted myself.
I am the Phoenix in the Rose.
You know I love it. I love the color.
No, that's great, man. Self portrait.
You can't underestimate.
I want to ask you some real quick questions about travel and culture.
Oh, like I tell everybody,
like, dream big.
So at the New Year
every year I try to you know how everybody has their resolutions.
And I was like, in 2022, I want to travel.
And I put in parentheses, I was like, I would prefer Africa.
11 days later, I got a phone call
and she was saying, Hey, you know, I love your story.
I love everything about you.
And I have these group of girls here at an orphanage,
and I want to inspire them and let them know they can do anything
that's powerful is not just here in Indianapolis, but
in Swaziland, Africa.
Hold a thought that people there will say, we want to fly you all the way
from the states because your story deserves to be told them.
And I went in for two weeks.
It changed my life.
I thought I was going there to point to them.
Yeah.
I was just really like, this is missionary work.
Like I'm pouring inot them, inspiring and I'm going to use art.
But they did more for me that I ever did for them
is that no matter what my ancestry came back is that I am Swazi.
This was something that means so much to me
and I'm going to cherish you for the rest of my life
because they changed the trajectory of my art.
Yeah, yeah.
The way I feel, the way that I see.
Tell me you've got three very powerful pieces,
one of which kind of reminds me of when I first saw your work.
Tell me about this work and then kind of walk me through
some of the pieces you've got coming along here.
Oh, I definitely, because of my recent travels to Africa, when I went there
for the first time in my life, I felt what it felt like to not be the minority.
And I saw all of these beautiful just people.
They weren't the richest, they weren't the poorest,
but they were just people
living with joy and laughter, dancing and singing, surrounded by family.
And I saw this beautiful, like blue hue just radiating off of them.
I really want to pay realistically, wearing blue hues.
So this particular painting, like you say, you're used to my gold leaf
yellows and gold leaf.
But this painting is actually called Ease Jean.
And these are supposed to be fraternal brothers,
and my crowns of them represent the eggs of them being twins.
That's the beautiful thing about artists. You never know.
And if you go to every piece like one do, I think they are trying to say.
And then when they might take it from me.
Great work, Ashley. I love that.
Thank you.
Moving along here, this is super powerful and I'm going to guess there's
some sort of travel influence to this, which I love.
I love. So.
Okay, give me because you're this is working.
This is a work in progress. This piece is called White Butterfly.
I know that white butterflies exist, right?
Like, but I did not see one in town with Africa
talking to my house.
I'm going to the house and I'm just like, You saw White Butterfly.
I was like, You're
the white butterflies are so rare, but they're attracted to light.
And they were like, That's why we named you Ebolaie, because you are light.
And even the insects and even the living things, they come to you.
They gravitate towards light because they need it to live is a source, is a healer.
And as he's transforming into his form, this is what I want to talk about
in this piece and how powerful, how no matter like you just see
the physical form of somebody, but they're attracted to the soul.
So this piece I wanted you to be attracted to show people
and change their thinking subconsciously.
Stop thinking about what someone looks like.
What does this look like?
This is what I want it to be.
If I'm going to live with a story and a meaning, I want you to feel that.
Yeah, every story.
You feel that.
I have. You see it this way. Literally.
So the light is shining on me and I'm attracted.
The butterflies are attracted to my light source.
Yeah. I can't wait to see what this one's done yet.
What motivates me now
is I put so much work into school and so much work.
And so my career as a chemist, that is my duty
and obligation to put twice as much work
into something that I love and establish myself artistically.
This was literally the second piece I did when I got back from Africa
is really yes, I was very intentional
about showing an aura outside of here, but I wanted to pay her large
in a confident pose to say I am here to take up space.
And I decided for the first time in all of my art
to use a lot of negative space which has this connotation.
But if you notice, the space is white.
Yeah, yeah.
And that's why the first thing that I got
when I went to Africa is knowing that being the minority
and it made me think of us here and how we have to navigate
in white spaces, but how our culture still bleeds
into these spaces that brings this beautiful life.
So this piece was my first piece of saying,
I deserve to take up space and I'm going to be confident
in this negative space to say, I still shine in this negative space.
Now I love it.
I have not created my best piece of work yet, and that's what I'm striving for.
Every piece I wanted to be is, is this going to be it?
So when I got the amazing opportunity at the Stutz Center
to do a mural, my very first mural actually,
I was like, I'm going to do the best job that I possibly can.
So Ashley, tell me about this mural.
First time I saw it, it did stop me in my tracks, one, because it's
beautifully painted in color, but it's also 3D, which is crazy.
But tell me about what got you doing this work and the subject matter.
I mean, I want to understand better.
And I was like, you know what?
If we celebrate Indianapolis, this culture, this culture, our culture
and the people in it who are doing great things, but not just those
who are famous and out there, they deserve to be there because they put in work.
They're legends.
But what about the ones that are doing legendary work?
The world doesn't know who they are and they love this, you know?
And I told them I was like, I want to do 3D.
And you're like, Oh, okay.
And it wasn't until I actually started painting, they're like, Wait,
you this 3D in 3D?
Like, this is glass is 3D.
And I said, Yeah.
And they flipped out and it was pretty amazing.
And then once I got finished
and put on the glasses, like I cried because it's like, it hurts so much.
Yeah. Does it work?
I said that day during the reveal, This may be my first,
but it won't be my last.
And ever since then it has been that I try to do a mural at least once a month.
So you're using
that 3D technique now on a lot of different work on.
All of my mirrors, on the. Murals.
All of my murals because I want it.
I notice the attention that it grabs and how vibrant.
Yeah.
So it's my thing and, you know, like I don't like to be put in a box,
but in my murals, you're going to see this box?
Yes, I love this box.
And this is where I want to stay.
You are allowing other people to be seen.
This is a powerful, powerful way to think about yourself in which you're doing it.
Thanks. You got a kingdom.
I'm not. Stop.
No, I'm just getting started.
I want to change the world.
And I'm crazy enough to believe that I can.
I really do.
Oh. Oh.
If. Oh,
oh, oh, oh.