Inspiration Comes in Many Forms
ASHANTÉ JOSEY is a visual artist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She enjoys teaching art as an art instructor as well as doing independent commissions for new art collectors. Ashanté creates with a variety of mediums such as acrylic paint, oil paint, spray paint, and digital art. The main medium that she focuses on is acrylic on canvas. Her pieces are centered on a blending technique. With influences as diverse as Frida Kahlo and Kehinde Wiley, faces are what Ashanté paints mostly. She appreciates their distinctiveness and the limitless conditions to creating portraits. Most of her work is black, symbolic pieces, with spirituality. Her inspiration is derived from black culture, nature, music, emotion, and symbolism; which can be seen in each piece.
As a self-taught artist, Ashanté’s enthusiasm for painting was cultivated in high school in 2009, taking extracurricular art classes. She attended The Pennsylvania State University. During her time at Penn State, she continued to take multiple art courses to feed her need for creative freedom, while pursuing her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History. After completing her degree in 2016, her interest in painting further developed.
In 2018, Ashanté decided to become a full-time visual artist. In March 2018, she successfully exhibited her first solo show and art collection, E11even. She recently exhibited her second collection in 2020, If God Were A Person. She hopes to create a new collection every other year. Ashanté has many great exhibitions under her belt along with public art collectors. She has enjoyed her involvement on public projects with GetGo, Downtown Partnership, The Pittsburgh International Airport, The University of Pittsburgh, and more. With experience with many mediums, Ashanté is looking forward to using her art to heal, reaching as many people as she can with her art with work in museums, streets, schools, books, businesses; as well as looking into teaching art therapy.
My Mediums / My Toolbelt
The mediums I enjoy the most when creating are acrylic and oil on canvas. Most of my work will be seen on canvases. My favorite tools to use when painting are my hands, palette knives, sponges and paint brushes in that order. I am learning that the less I use brushes the more free I feel when creating. I enjoy watching the paint do its own thing. Although my main mediums are acrylic and oil on canvas, I am not limited to those mediums. I create canvas and poster prints of my work, I work with large scale murals and digital art as well.