As a tattoo artist, Ash Gregorio’s human canvases run through the normal range. As a painter, her canvases run from large to the very large. Although she is defensively evasive as to the meaning of her paintings, bigness itself is a statement, connoting ambition—and a desired impact on the viewer.
Gregorio works in oil, the medium of the old masters—departing from their ways in building from a base layer of shocking pink paint. Her overlaying palettes are the soft pastels of an idealized girlhood, shading from hot to cool tones, contrasted sharply with dark blacks, and blues and the greens of bruising.
What one sees in her paintings is her point of view—a young woman gazing at a young woman. Her subjects are typically alone, typically elaborately dressed and styled, amid children’s toys in the private domestic settings of bedrooms and bathrooms. Although the spaces are windowless, one has a sense that it is night.
The expressions of the women are single-note uncomplicated—silly or sassy or dissociated. But the general impact of these large canvases is emotionally varied. They typically contain the ebullient vitality and tender melancholia of early womanhood.
I first became aware of Ash Gregorio when she painted a model from the Chenoa Faun circus collection presented at the North Bay Fashion Ball—an event I co-produced with Lena Claypool (see the painting of Georgie at Gregorio’s Instagram portfolio, @ash.gregorio). When I first met her to interview, Gregorio was elaborately dressed and styled in black—a pastiche of indy rock sleaze, clown, Bo Peep and black metal.
As we sat and sweated on a hot park bench, I found her easy and amused, with a satiric bite held just behind her pearl teeth. I was unsurprised to find that Gregorio was a recent graduate of the Sonoma State University BFA program, which has had a fine record for producing accomplished figurative painters.
Cincinnatus Hibbard: Label yourself, Ash.
Ash Gregorio: I am a queer artist from Rohnert Park. I paint what I see.
You have been on a sad clown kick. What is the narrative of those paintings?
These young women are sad because they don’t want to perform—but are being forced to. It relates to how young women are seen and presented—as spectacle. It’s sad. And it’s infuriating.
Do you listen to music while you paint?
Yes, mostly classic metal, like Mega Death and Lamb of God—and techno, like Machine Girl. I used to go to a lot of raves.
Is their music playing within the scenes you paint?
No, I would say they are silent scenes.
I hate to say it, but you could sell the hell out of these in LA.
Everyone tells me that (laughs). I don’t like LA. I’m from a small town—even Santa Rosa seems like a big city to me.
I understand you’re about to go even bigger with your painting.
I won a grant to paint a mural in Santa Rosa from LGBTQ Connections. I have never done a mural, and I’m going to have to work in acrylics. I’m a little scared about that (laughs).
Learn more: Available to show and to sell her works, Ash Gregorio can be reached through her fine art Instagram, @ash.gregorio. At True Til Death Tattoo, she specializes in fine lines. Her subjects range from cybersigil angel wings to flowers to lettering to bones to ‘Adventure Time’ cartoon characters.
