Creative Momentum, Dancing with Fear and Nourishing Friendships with Ashley Klassen
I hope you enjoy this conversation with editorial photographer and creator of super stylish photography studios 'Sol Atelier' in Toronto & Montreal, Ashley Klassen.
In this episode Ashley shares about how she navigates fear in her creative life and what she is looking forward to in the near future.
We talk about the things that nourish ourselves as artists and the ways this supports our creative lives and also shares advice and words to her younger self.
Transcription
Monique
This is the Creative Alchemy Podcast and I'm your host, Monique Pantel. Here we explore creativity and life through story, synchronicity and tales of possibility. This is a place for artists and dreamers to share wisdom, inspiration, and empower you to explore your own creative life. Together, we hold space to speak dreams into reality and share transformative ways of creating and living life. Let's dream alchemize and create thank you for being here. Welcome to Creative Alchemy. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the inaugural episode of Creative Alchemy podcast. I'm so excited. And today we are going to be talking to Ashley Clarkson. Ashley is an editorial photographer and a brand photographer based in Toronto and Montreal. It goes without saying that her specialty and absolute gift is female portraiture. She is known for expressing sensual, beauty, vulnerability, and honest feelings of feminine hedonism weaved within a modern Bohemian aesthetic. Ashley is a multifaceted artist. She's a trained opera singer, and she has an amazing knack for interior design. As a photographer, Ashley captures soulful creatives entrepreneurs and brands in addition to capturing mothers, which I find she's especially gifted at. Welcome, Ashley.
Ashley
Thank you so much.
Monique
You're so welcome. Thank you for being here. I'm so happy to see you virtually in real life and very excited to have a conversation with you because it's been a while. You and I are long time friends now. I would say nearly a decade and I've been holding Creative Alchemy in my heart, this podcast in my heart, and I can't imagine a better person to begin this journey with. You are so soulful. You are such a beauty. You were really an expander for me as like a creative person. So I can't wait.
Ashley
Totally.
Monique
No, you totally were such an expander for me. So I'm so excited. I'm so excited for today to chat. So how are you today?
Ashley
I'm doing good. And yeah, I think it's just like to put everything into reflection there. We really did meet at a very interesting time in our lives. I know you say I'm an expander. I'm like you are my expander. And I mean, it's such a sweet, beautiful relationship of how we came to meet and how we've supported and inspired one another along our very different journeys. So I love looking back on our story and kind of seeing how far we've come.
Monique
I'm proud of us.
Ashley
Yeah, I'm proud of us too.
Monique
So this podcast Creative Alchemy, I've held it in my heart for a long time. And the intention behind it is to sort of fill a space in the podcast world that I have never really found for myself. And that is like I want listeners to when they come here to feel like that they grab a really beautiful warm cup of tea that they cuddle into the couch or bed and they sit down and they're part of this really heartfelt conversation, like a really intimate, heartfelt conversation. And I feel like you and I have had so many of those over the years, the foundation of our friendship. And I feel like you do that really beautifully. You totally shine in really intimate, like one on one, two on one, three on one. You're a very quiet person, even though you have a nice Instagram following. And as creatives, we have to kind of put ourselves out there. You totally shine. Your energy is so beautiful. Just like sitting on the couch having amazing heart to heart. Yeah. Tell me, when did you figure out that you were a creative person? Because you are a photographer, you're a trained opera singer. I feel like you can take any sort of artistic tool and make it something incredible and transmute it and transform it into something like magical. So I'd love to hear when you decided or when you sort of accepted yourself as a creative person.
Ashley
I like that. How do you say accepted yourself? Because I believe we're all creative and we see our little babies and that is their nature. It's our essence. And how we've survived is being creative. And I think everybody has their journey of nurturing their creativity, and it shows up in different spaces. And for me personally, it showed up in the arts. So from a very young age, I was just really interested in all things arts, but especially music. And that's where I was nurtured the most. And what I excelled in the most from a young age. So I think for me, it started when I was five. At that time, I always loved music. I was into singing, then to instruments. And I think just having a childhood that was very supportive in creative arts. My mom was an educator and also came from a creative family, really just kind of gave me a strong sense of belonging there because I had nurtured it. Right. So going out of school, even like in school, it was always my favorite subjects were those things. And that's kind of how we start off and we do extra curricular and then onto University studying music, it was just where I five to be. But of course, you change the medium sometimes and went from music to photography, and sometimes now it's interior design, but there's such a unique space to discovering your creative interests when you're young that I think if you exercise that muscle and tune into it or go back to those moments in your childhood where you were like, that really excited me. There's a spark there. And I think it's just really sweet to come back to thinking about that's where it all began.
Monique
And tell me about moments of because I experienced this, like, moments of creative momentum for me. I feel like if I'm in a moment in my life or a time in my life where I'm not nurturing myself, maybe relationships in my life are strained or need tending to it's so connected for me personally to my creativity. I feel totally depleted, and I have no energy for that aspect of myself. And when I am feeling super creative, it's like these moments of expansion in my life where I'm like, super nourishing. And really taking care of my inner landscape, let's call it. So, yeah, I would love to hear what creative momentum feels like or looks like for you. And then on the other end, like those moments of depletion and that sort of thing. I don't know if it ties into maybe like motherhood for you, it did for me, but I would love to hear what that was like for you.
Ashley
Yeah. Momentum is an interesting word because you can get really obsessive, or at least I can when you start getting excited about saying something and you want to follow through and do. And of course, all that changes when you're a mother. But for me, the momentum, I guess it just ups and flows and there's really high points of creation. And then there's other times where you just need a lot of space and you just go slow and it could be like you feel depleted. You need to recuperate. The whole creative process is just messy. It's not the same. It's always different. You need a lot of downtime. And then depending on how you like to work, it is exciting. And then I get into my doing phases where it's like really quickly all at once, and then it's like a cycle where it's like, okay, you worked really hard that way. Now you got to rest hard. And sometimes that's monthly. Sometimes it's quarterly. It's not like a schedule. Right. So my mention is, I think, just unique to individuals. And for me, I try not to think about it too much. But what I do feel is that need, like when you're saying you have that you need to take care of yourself. When I'm feeling, like, frustrated or just a little edgy, it's because I haven't tended to my creativity and that's like taking care of myself. That's where I feel the most happy. Right. So it's a message to be like, hey, you need to go do something creative, aka fun. You need to go make something. Okay. And whatever it is, sometimes it's like a banana bread. Doesn't have to be a photo shoot. Or it's like you make the most wonderful experience in the bath. Get your candles. That's to me, creativity too. And sometimes it's producing something. Sometimes it is like, oh, yeah, I need to do like a photo shoot and get creative because you need to express yourself that way.
Monique
Yeah. You in that way, especially have been such an expander for me. And every time I get to be around you physically, I feel like, inspired because you do that so well. You have a beautiful pot of soup on the stove or you've just made muffins, or your space is so clean and put together and you have incense lit, or you've got, like, a beautiful playlist going on in the background. You introduce me to new music all the time. I just find you so magnetic.
Ashley
Sensory, yes. But you're magnetizing.
Monique
Like, you really are so sensual and connected to your feminine. It's so beautiful to be around. And you do that exactly. Instead of just, let's go for a picnic, you're like, let's go for a picnic with the beautiful leaved basket, and let's go to the nice cheese shop and get all of these beautiful cheeses. What are you going to say?
Ashley
I did that yesterday. I was seeing a girlfriend. I should clarify that my everyday life is definitely not like that. I really, like, live it up when I'm especially meeting my girlfriends. I think there's a lot of sacred shared energy that happens when you're meeting your girlfriend. So I was meeting up with my friend Katrina, and I was like, oh, it's time to feast. So I got to get the triple cream Brie, got to get the baguette, got to get the pastries, got to get the tea and all the yummy things, like creating that banquet of senses and pleasures and just setting that atmosphere and then having those discussions. It's just like soul food for me. And it's not my day to day lifestyle. Come on. When was the last time I had a bath? Let's be honest. I would love a bath. Oh, my gosh.
Monique
Listen, do you not have a bath?
Ashley
No, we do have a bath. I just don't have towing. I feel. Oh, well, I know you don't have.
Monique
A bath, but you know what? I recently so for people listening. I live in a very remote area of Panama, and I live in the Pueblo. I live in the town. And so our house is a classic Panamanian house, and it does not have a bath. It has a shower. So don't worry. I'm dating, but it doesn't have a bath. And that's one thing in my so far, two and a half year journey here is something that I've missed deeply.
Ashley
Is having a beautiful bath.
Monique
However, two weeks ago, I discovered there is a very small, beautiful resort here, and they have a bath experience. They have sort of inspiration of Japanese onsen, and they have a bath. And so I did, like, a bath and massage combo. I just marinated in that bath. It was dark with essential oils. And I had all of these really beautiful teas that she had brought and these really lovely cookbooks that were sort of holistically inclined. And, yeah, it just was so filling for, like, my inner artist will say, I inspired. So baths are everything, and I miss them.
Ashley
So......
Monique
Maybe doing that later this week. So let's see. So cool. I love to hear that, Ashley. Okay, so those are all the beautiful things about creating amazing spaces. What about fear when it comes to your creativity? Because for me, really accepting becoming an artist was me moving through so much fear. And I talk about this book all the time, but The Artist's Way is like a twelve week sort of program to help artists move through reconnecting with themselves as artists and reconnecting with a spiritual guide to being a creative. And it helps me so much move through the fear of stepping into myself as a photographer and as an artistic person. So I would love to hear about what did fear look like for you?
Ashley
Well, I think it's important to mention that fear is very normal and we still face that. Like, fear looks different to me now than it did, but it's something we're constantly kind of grappling with. And I believe it's the most courageous act to be creative and just do that thing. Fear. It's nice to kind of think about it a bit and really identify what it is you're fearing because it's like doing shadow work. You have to face it and kind of talk about it so that you can overcome it. And for me, fear has been mostly limited beliefs. I've come to know myself and my personality type. Also my creative type, which I'm going to put a little plugin for the creative type. Have you done this quiz before?
Monique
Tell me everything.
Ashley
Okay, so it's by Adobe and I think the creativetype mycreativetype.com. And there's like eight different types of creative types and it's basically like a personality test for your type of creativity. So cool. Anyways, depending on how I answer questions, I've done it a couple of times. I'm a producer and a maker and it was just really nice to feel seen and validated in how I function and how I work around risk, how I find joy and play in the process, and the how to I work really well. Like, my complimentary type is a dreamer and a visionary because they support me in thinking big for myself. That's where I have the most fear of thinking big, actually. So I tend to give myself, like very limiting beliefs. I can be very pessimistic and realistic about a lot of ideas that I have. And I find it so essential to talk with my friends and other creatives that's when things got big for me in my journey was when I started sharing and listening, but also just like sharing little things because there were things by myself I was too afraid to share, but within the company of others, for some reason, I was like, yeah, maybe I don't know about this thing. And then all of a sudden cheerleader friend is like, yeah, you should do that thing. Oh my gosh, you're amazing at this. And then all of a sudden you think, okay, yeah, I can do that thing. And so much like trust is held when you have those close friends who really just connect with that, they can really spring you into the right direction. And I just think it's so valuable for community in that sense, too. And now I kind of feel like I've jumped, like, several different topics within that, but it's all kind of tied together, and that's essentially where I found my fears and how I find I can overcome them best.
Monique
I feel like you didn't jump at all. I feel like that took me down the road of yes, I have fears. It's a part of the creative dance. And the moment that you started acknowledging your fears and doing that, quote, unquote shadow work with your creative life and started speaking those fears out loud to your trusted friends, they became these beautiful cheerleaders in your life. And I love that you're talking about them because I've had the absolute gift of meeting them and spending time with them. And they are just individually, all their own Angels. They're just incredible people. And you have such an amazing group of friends. That's so cool to hear. I would say that you didn't skip a bunch of topics that just took me down the road of what fear looks like for you. Can you tell me about Bianca and the project that's coming up for you? Because I want to ask about what you're excited about for the future. And I know that you have an upcoming project, so I'd love to hear more about it. What it was like, how the idea came about, I don't know much about it. So tell me everything.
Ashley
Yes. I mean, it's kind of funny how the idea came about. I was actually having coffee with somebody I met on Instagram back before Pandemic Times. And we were just having, like, in real life meet up for, I think, the first or maybe the second time I had photographed her or something before. And I was like, hey, let's go grab a drink and chat. And she was the one who asked me, what do you want to do? What's the big dream of yours? And I really had to sit there and think I was like, I don't know. I don't know what I want to do. I think maybe I'd like to publish some of my pieces somehow, maybe a magazine. And at that time, I was really inspired by the Unconditional magazine. And I was like, I think I want to do something like that. I love the experience of it in my hands anyways. I was just kind of, like, talking off the top of my head, like, in the moment, I hadn't thought about it. She just really asked and was a listener. And then it just kind of was like, maybe I should look into this somehow after that. And I did. I reached out to Aso Bianca is the creative director at Thought Catalog. And of course, she's also an amazing poet. She's Rainbow Salt on Instagram, and she I had already a connection with because we had worked together on some photography work for her. So I kind of just was like, well, she's the only person I know who produces books for people and reach out to her, just kind of pitch the idea of like, I'd really love to publish something that's mainly pictures. I know you guys do mostly poetry and stuff. And she's like, no, we do everything. We're just a publishing house too. So I was like, okay, that's my idea. And I would really like to pair it with poetry because I was really into that. That's so glam, I guess on social media I had a picture, and I loved finding the sentiment and words that felt like it would go with that photo. It wasn't created based on that, but that felt similar. So I told her that, and I was like, maybe you can find someone to write for it. I don't know. And she's like, oh, well, I can write for it.
Monique
I was like, yeah, okay.
Ashley
So it kind of just was like a very simple initial conversation that she had to pitch to the team. There essentially, like, logistics wise, what it looks like. I'm curious about this stuff, so I'm going to share it. They gave me a proposal and said, okay, this is what you're going to do. This is how it's going to work. Like, we're going to publish it. We're going to put up all the costs for it. You're just going to make a Commission. We'll distribute it, we'll do whatever you need. I was like, Do I have created control? They're like, yes, you have creative control. I was like, Is there a deadline? It's like, no, you can create your deadline. I was like, okay, so basically you'll just make whatever I want to make.
Monique
And they'll fund the production and all of the logistics in that and taking that aspect out of it.
Ashley
Oh, my gosh. Weight lifted. Yes.
Monique
Because now you can just pour all of your energy into what you want to be creating. Wow.
Ashley
And there is, like, other options, I guess, to self publish. But I didn't want this to be a solo project. I really wanted it to be something I could felt like I was collaborating with someone. And in the end, it's just a collection of some of the coolest people I know because it's all my creative work from the first two years in my photography journey. So it just feels like a really awesome celebration of the coolest and some of the most influential, beautiful people I've met in my early days. And it was just funny timing because I signed that deal, I think, four or five days before Covet. And then when Covet happened, I was like, because I wasn't done. I still had plans to shoot. I was like, I don't know when I'm going to be able to finish this. I have at least five or six shoots to do. We're not allowed to shoot anyway. As time has passed and within these past two years, we finished the photography, we finished the poetry, and currently it's very long process. We're just working on putting things together. Yeah.
Monique
And do you have an estimated timeline of when that beautiful publication can be on my coffee table?
Ashley
Oh, my gosh. Sadly, no, because some of it is sitting on my shoulders and I want to give it priority, but it's still kind of sitting on fourth priority in my thing with my list of to do because mom time is like, oh, it's so hard.
Monique
I know.
Ashley
When it's just been one of those things where I've learned to embrace that it'll happen when it happens, trust the timing of everything. And I'm in. I'm in no rush to push it out there. So hopefully within the next year.
Monique
I'm so excited. And does it have a name to see project?
Ashley
Yes. So it's called Emotional Aesthetics. And yeah, I think the rest I kind of touched upon, but I still have to do a little bit of writing for it. And yeah, you can watch out for it.
Monique
Well, I can't wait. And I'll add all of those links to where people can find Bianca and your stuff. Wow. I can't wait for that to come to be. So right now, we just entered the new moon in Gemini. And if anyone is into astrology and following the full moons and the new moons and all of those different energies, Gemini is all about timing. So I'm curious. On the new moon, a lot of people like to put out intentions. I'm curious for you, Ashley. What are you looking forward to? What are you intending to create in your life in the next little bit?
Ashley
Oh, so cool.
Monique
Okay.
Ashley
So for me, actually, these next couple of months, and I only tend to look a couple of months ahead into the future. It hurts my brain to think beyond three months. So for the next three months, I've really actually planned a summer of joy. I cut down my work. I planned lots of trips, lots of like, visiting friends and driving places and flying places. And it's Leo's birthday, his first birthday. So it's just going to be a summer to save her. And I think there's going to be beauty and creativity within there in the very personal rewarding. Family circle sense girl trip is this weekend. What are you doing? We're all going to Prince Edward County. We just rented a cute Airbnb. Yeah. We haven't all connected, all four of us in almost, I think like a year. It feels like without a baby or without somebody else there. So it's just like these next couple of months, I've kind of said, you know what? You need some time to just enjoy life. And I'm kind of putting my projects per se on the back burner a little because it's time to just enjoy. Right. I love that.
Monique
And that is also one of my intentions for the next few months is lots of family and reconnection and just having I love how you said a summer to savor. That's how I feel. Also, tell me, what are you savoring right now? What are you listening to?
Ashley
I don't listen too much, to be honest. No, I really enjoy quiet. Okay.
Monique
That's crazy, too. Yes.
Ashley
I find that listening is very active. So for me, when I'm at home, the only things I have been kind of listening to in the background, which feels a little bit shameful, is just like Netflix. I like to edit and listen to Netflix when I'm editing my photos. Oh, I think I just binged the series called Casual, which it was good, but I just needed. It's almost like background noise. It's not even I don't want to intensely listen to anything, but I have my favorite of all podcast is, I believe it's called Taking It Slowly. Dang it. I'm going to have to come back to that. And she only puts out a podcast once every couple of months now because she's really living her what she says she lives by taking things slow. But it's so beautiful to listen to. But I'm definitely because I'm a sensitive listener, I actually prefer to have a lot of quiet. Yeah.
Monique
That's interesting how you said I find listening to be very active, and I'm actually the same way. And I always sort of was curious about why maybe when I'm listening to music, why I kind of feel tired or I just feel sort of like a little bit overwhelmed. But maybe that's why for me, I'm an active listener. Interesting. I never thought of that, I guess. Lastly, I would love to hear if you had to talk to your younger artist self, if you had advice, or what would you say to your younger creative self, especially as you sort of like, navigated coming from a musical career and shifting to a visual career within photography and interiors? I'm so curious what you would tell yourself, because I know that, girl, people don't know this, but you and I live together for a period of time and we were roommates and you were the most amazing. I would come home and you'd have fresh biscotti made and you'd be listening to opera music. And it was just like I felt.
Ashley
Inspired in your space and with you around your energy. It was you one day again, maybe.
Monique
We'Ll get to live together again one day. That would just be amazing.
Ashley
Yeah.
Monique
What would you tell yourself or what do you have advice for creative sort of navigating creative change or on the cusp of exploring a different medium?
Ashley
I think the biggest thing is just trusting the process and having a lot of Grace. There can be so much noise when it comes to your own thoughts. Thinking about what other people are thinking about you comparison. This digital world that we're in is so immediate and noisy that you just have to come back to yourself in a way. And it's hard. And I think the most I felt panicked and unsure at two different times in my life. I think when I was with you, because there was also a lot of relational stuff in my personal world that was very insecure. And that, of course, affected me. My sense of identity had also kind of was shifting. I felt like and of finding my place and my belonging. I was really in a discovery phase there. So trusting that process, having Grace and just doing the things you love, you're.
Monique
Going to be okay.
Ashley
That's what I've told myself. And the most recent, I think, episode, being motherhood and COVID, I also had some mental breakdown at the beginning of COVID. I would have told myself, and I was telling myself because I had to do some work. I had to start writing and journaling and was similar trust the process and the timing and that things are going to get better and have Grace and find the things that bring joy and connect reach out to others. Because sometimes just having a conversation with another person, like you are not alone in what you're feeling, what you're experiencing. And nothing makes you feel better sometimes than being that support and voice for somebody else. The moment you become like a supporter and a cheerleader for another, it makes you feel, like, stronger too. So those have been my little moment. I needed something to say that have got me through.
Monique
Yeah. There's so much power and invulnerability. And when you yourself sort of allow yourself to be vulnerable and unfold and say what's on your heart, especially in troubling times, hard times, difficult times. What's the saying when your knees hit the floor kind of moments in your life when you share those moments with other people? I think it gives others permission to also unfold if they've just been holding everything together and trying to keep it cool and trying to keep it okay. When you share a difficult moment or a difficult chapter that just instinctively sort of offers permission for other people to uphold and, man, isn't that just such a beautiful gift? Totally.
Ashley
Yes. Being a space holder, it could be one on one. It could be in a group. It's a magical and transformative space and something you do so well.
Monique
I love you well, I think I just am so grateful for you and your energy. I can't believe we didn't dive into motherhood, but I think we're going to have to do a second conversation, like a follow up episode specifically on motherhood and creativity, because there's so much there. And I think that that deserves almost its own episodes.
Ashley
It does.
Monique
So maybe let's call this episode part one. Part one with Ashley Glasson and. Oh, I have a question. Do people call you flash, like people.
Ashley
Who don't know you? I think at one time maybe I don't mind. Yeah.
Monique
No, it's great. I remember actually the time that we lived together, you were doing an entire rebrand and you were like, that's going to be my Instagram handle. That was going to be my website is clash and it's a blend of your last and first name together.
Ashley
So that's really cool. That's funny. Really cool.
Monique
Well, thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and your heart. You're such an angel and I'm so excited for the folks listening that don't know you that really get to have a connection with you over this podcast and I'll share all of the links to Ashley's work, her website where you can find us and I hope that you, the listener, have enjoyed this conversation with Ashley Klassen. If you have anything to share, I'd love to hear from you. You connect with me on our Instagram again. Everything will be linked in the show notes and yeah, so just sending you immense gratitude have an amazing week and thank you again
LINKS
Creative Alchemy’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativealchemypodcast/?hl=en
Ashley’s Website: https://www.klassh.ca/
Ashley’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kla_ssh/?hl=en
Monique’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monique_pantel/?hl=en
Monique’s Website: https://www.pantelphoto.com/
Bianca’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rainbowsalt/?hl=en