For the past several years, Ashley Story has been playing with acrylic paints. This month, she is exhibiting a body of work that showcases her love for painting the everyday, from landscapes to household clutter.
“I have always wanted to paint, and I’ve started many paintings over the years, but didn’t know what I was doing or how to do it,” Story said.
In 2024, she took an acrylic painting class from local artist Tracy Early, but still found herself hesitating to paint. It was not until earlier this year when she found herself wanting a creative outlet that she began completing her previously-started paintings.
“I deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and anxiety and last year I decided to start seeking treatment and taking my mental health seriously,” she said. “Recovery has been a very up and down thing, and a month into my recovery process, I experienced a really difficult loss, and it knocked me totally off balance. It was tough to keep pushing forward, but I chose to expand and find new and healthier ways to cope, and painting became a big part of that for me. It was a lifeline.”
Story considers herself new to her medium and has not yet set her focus on one particular style. For this exhibit, she was inspired to paint images she had taken photographs of, painting in and around running her hair salon, Short Cuts, and spending time with her family, including her three children, ages 11, 14 and 16.
“I had photos saved to my camera roll that capture simple moments in Alaska and life in general, and I decided to play and experiment with those,” she said. “I’m a very emotional and deep-feeling person and I also dislike too much structure. Running a business and parenting requires structure, and painting gives me an outlet to process, quiet my mind and play outside the lines. Art is one of the only areas of life I can think of where there are no rules, only creation and expression.”
One of Story’s favorite paintings currently on display is her rendition of a photograph taken by Katie Elizabeth Engwall that she saw featured on the Homer Chamber of Commerce Instagram page. The image shows a sunset scene of a mountain in the background with Kachemak Bay, trees and fireweed in the foreground.
“I absolutely love the version of a Homer sunset that Elizabeth captured,” she said.
Another of her favorite paintings is “Days like these,” an image she captured with her phone while driving to Seward a couple of years ago. The painting puts the viewer in the driver’s seat looking at the highway, with railings to the side, trees on both sides and a cloudy sky overhead.
“The sun shone through the morning mist in such a magical way, and I knew I could never totally capture that in my painting, but it felt peaceful to try,” she said.
Born and raised in Homer, Story is a fourth-generation community member. She is inspired by local artists including Tracy Early, Chelsea Jones and Marjorie Scholl, as well as international artist Lily-Rose Burgess, whose work encourages her to explore new themes of color and nostalgia.
This exhibit is Story’s second time showing publicly. Her first time was earlier this year when she contributed two of her paintings to a family art show collaboration that featured her uncle Garret Story’s photography, her father Chris Story’s pottery, and her acrylic paintings.
Story’s longer-term goals for her creativity include pursuing more commission work, and she is still considering what direction she might go with that. “Celsius Phase” is a large painting in her exhibit that features a can of Celsius-brand orange-flavored sparkling water surrounded by orange slices, and was a commission for a local real estate company. She is currently working on another commission, painting from a boudoir photo shoot she did with a local woman.
“The commissions have been exciting and I’m eager to do more, but I’m not sure exactly what that will look like,” she said. “I really like to paint people and landscapes, so I’m still figuring that out.”
Several pieces in Story’s exhibit have already sold and she is delighted at the response.
“This exhibit was so much fun for me, and I also had so much imposter syndrome putting it together and putting my work out there,” she said. “Showing your art is like putting pieces of your most vulnerable self on display for people to see. I’m happy that people are enjoying my creativity.”
Find Story’s paintings on display at the Art Shop Gallery through the end of the month.
Paintings by Ashley Story, photographed on May 10, 2025, are on display at the Art Shop Gallery in Homer, Alaska, for the month of May. Photo by Christina Whiting
“Days Like These” is an acrylic painting by Ashley Story, on display in her solo exhibit at the Art Shop Gallery in Homer, Alaska, through May 2025. Photo by Christina Whiting
This acrylic painting by Ashley Story, based on a photograph by Katie Elizabeth Engwall, is on display in her exhibit through May 2025 at the Art Shop Gallery in Homer, Alaska. Photo provided by Ashley Story
