About the Artist

Ashley Grubb

I began feeling severe depression and anxiety in 6th grade. I failed my 7th grade art class. My anxiety, as well as my lack of fine motor skills, translated into shaky lines and spilled paint on all my assignments. I let that failure, and that idea that I was doomed to be an anxious, depressed, un-artistic person, haunt me for 25 years. However, in 2022 I discovered a phone app (DADA) that helps the user create elaborate art collages. I began playing with the app and found that the deep focus enabled by creating art soothed my anxiety and boosted my low moods. Since summer of 2022, I have created roughly 350 pieces. I feel like a child at play when I mix and match images form a composition that elucidates a feeling or expands upon an idea. I create many pieces based around my struggles with anxiety and depression, feminism, LGBTQ+ issues, the natural world, I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of this amazing medium, and I intend to create in it for always.

Art featured online at www.CourageArt.org