Ashley Serrano
Ashley Serrano is a self-taught painter based in Tampa, Florida. She received a Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Central Florida, putting her film degree to use by storyboarding her scripts through painted portraits that reflect fictional and real-life moments. Her work is a balance of portraits intertwined with surrealism and urban street elements to reflect stories she has both lived and/or created to exemplify deeper themes of mental health, the self, everyday life, the concept of time, and the preservation of individuals painted with acrylics, aerosols, and oils on canvas.
Collect Bean: Tell us about a time when you felt you found your groove as an artist.
Ashley Serrano: I started my art journey in high school and absolutely despised the thought of completing a portrait. I feared doing it because I assumed portraits had to be replicas of real-life people, places, and things. It wasn’t until I started experimenting with the mixture of portraits with graffiti-like elements and eventually branching off into trying new backgrounds to help me tell a story. For me, it was all about expressing who these people are, painted across oversized canvases. Looking back through textbooks and lectures of historical figures from centuries before our time, I realized a portrait leaves an impression of who we are today and what life is like now that can be looked back on in the centuries after us.
Collect Bean: What role does art play in society, and how does your work contribute to that?
Ashley Serrano: My art plays the main role in helping me cope with my struggles and anxieties. I went to the University of Central Florida to learn about all things Film and Television because I want to be able to communicate stories on the big screen. Yet, I found it easier to use art as my storyboarding sessions and tell stories regarding people and places from my imagination, observations, and personal preferences as a storyteller and artist. I work outside my comfort zone and create work that disturbs those who are “comfortable,” meaning that I don’t like to be restricted by the messages I convey through portraits. If I want to tell the story about the gores and tribulations of someone’s life, I have no fear to paint it like it is. That is what I want more people to gain a better grip on and accept that even Carrivagio and other well-known artists weren’t afraid to test the limits and push boundaries within the art world. Not everything in art is simple and abstract. Sometimes, art is disturbing and bizarre for all the right reasons, but it is up to society to make their interpretations when they view my work.
Collect Bean: How does your painting process look like from start to finish?
Ashley Serrano: My painting process can be chaotic because it’s usually freehanded at different times. I could either map out the entire painting with pencil and then paint on the layers, or I might sketch the faces and then freely paint on the bodies and backgrounds as I go. By the end of the painting, it’s not entirely finished, but for the most part, it looks complete. I do not cover the entire surface from corner to corner because leaving things unfinished allows people to see the painting with an open mind. No idea is ever fully complete, just like my paintings.
Collect Bean: Are there any recurring themes or motifs in your art, and if so, what do they represent to you?
Ashley Serrano: A lot of my work is portrait-based, but there is constant repetition of a few cuts and bruises on the individuals. This is my way of communicating that not all things and people are perfect, and everyone has something going on in their lives that can be complicated and never an easy journey. Much like the process of painting, I struggle to finish portraits, knowing that I overthink the final piece, and therefore, I experience my own cuts and bruises along the way as an artist. Nothing is ever easy, and I want people to understand that.
Collect Bean: How do you balance your practice with your daily life?
Ashley Serrano: Creating art is not easy, and I say that all the time. Some people can literally slap some paint onto a surface and call it art. Others will spend hours, if not months, completing one piece and feel happy with it in the end. The way I balance my practice with my daily life is simple: create art when I am in the mood to create it. I cannot stress enough how many times I have been burnt out, forcing myself to paint a new piece and try to share it with the rest of the world. I’m not a machine. I’m a person who simply paints when I feel the creative urge or the moment I need to run away from reality to paint something and paint it with meaning. And because I can’t sit still for too long, I tend to go back and forth with my work, taking as many breaks as needed before returning to work. For me, it’s all about being in the mood to start on a new canvas and finish it because, at the end of the day, I’m telling stories that make sense to me and allowing others to interpret them however they choose to do so.
