ashley trabue (b. 1989) is a Southern-born American writer, Montessori-trained educator, and visual artist working across abstract and figurative forms.
Best known for their community-based, figurative work, trabue’s art is a practice of un-shaming — our bodies, our emotions, our experiences — and returning to ourselves with a greater sense of wholeness and belonging intact.
trabue’s work is shaped by contrast, tensions and extremes. Her visual aesthetic oscillates between bold, expressive, highly saturated paintings that explore her own emotional intensity and sense of “muchness” and more minimalistic, color-blocked or black and white works that invite the viewer’s own interiority to emerge.
Their process is often diaristic and centers a willingness to work collaboratively with the unknown through experimentation, curiosity and play. Their art is held in private collections around the world.
They reside in Portland, Maine with their spouse, Trey, a poet and fiction writer, and their two cats, Gremlin and Nana.
image by Kyle Warnock
“I create to connect and care for myself and to deepen my ability to work with the unknown.
I am fascinated with the ways our environments—not only the physical but the emotional, ideological, and relational environments that constantly surround us—shape us as humans.
I explore these spaces in my work across subject matter and utilize expressionist principles that embody the tenets of a more nurturing world: delight over shame; curiosity over control; and presence over perfection.
Centering delight throughout the process, I often use my hands as much as my brushes and tools, and work with fast-drying materials like acrylic paint and pastels which tether me to the present moment and allow for intuitive layering and spontaneous experiments.”
image by Jenna Henderson
PRESS
Creativity from a Liberatory Mindset | interview with Ashley Trabue, Mood Milk Substack, 2026
On the Shitty Art Challenge with ashley trabue, artist and educator, On Topic Substack, 2025
Conjuring Shameless Self-Confidence, Mind Witchery Podcast, 2024
Channel Your Inner, “Bad Girl,” for Success in Art and Business, She Who Paints Podcast, 2024
Make Art A Lifestyle with Ashley Trabue, Dangerous Creatives Podcast, 2023
Atlanta Shoutout: Meet Ashley, 2021
Artist Check-in with Ashley Trabue, Museum 21c, 2020
A Moment with Ashley Trabue, Love Local, 2020
Finding Joy in Art with Ashley Trabue, 100% Creative Podcast, 2020
Embracing Your Inner Artist with Ashley Trabue, Money Confident Podcast, 2020
Coffee date: Disney Princesses + Deprogramming Beliefs, Pretty, Please podcast, 2020
Purity Culture, Josh Harris, & Now What // Curiocity Podcast 2019
She Is Balanced, interview, 2019
PUBLICATIONS
Make Your Art! self-published, 2023
Dancing Girl Press, Vertebrae, poetry chapbook, 2019
Versify #31: Before Bukowski, 2019
Rebelle Society, Blueprint of a Buried Voice, 2018
Hobart, Murmuration 2017
Rockvale Review, three poems 2017
Ekphrastic Poetry Project, What if the Children are Not Spoiled 2017
Nashville Review, two poems, 2015
EDUCATION
2014, American Montessori Society, 3-6 Certification
2014, Montessori Educational Institute of North America, Creative Curriculum Development, Jackson, TN
2012, B.A. in English, Elementary Education and Painting from Belmont University, Nashville, TN
SOLO
2026, Creature Comfort Color Quilts, The Francis Hotel, Portland, ME
2025, For the Love of the Process, Second Rodeo, Portland, ME
2019-2020, Body as Landscape, 21c Museum Hotel, Nashville, TN
2018, Cognitive Landscapes, Franklin, TN
GROUP
2026, Art is Life! Caitlin Shirock Gallery, Nashville, TN
2026, Collect! Maine Collect of Art & Design, Portland, ME
2025, Resist & Persist, ECC Gallery, Portland, ME
2023, Daybreak, 82 Parris, Portland, ME
2022, Holiday Salon, Galerie Tangerine, Nashville, TN
2021, She is, Art for the Home, Nashville, TN
2019, Skyn, Hotel Preston, Nashville, TN
2019, Art Comes Alive, Art Design Company, Cincinnati, OH
2018, Essence of Form, St. Lous Artist’s Guild, St. Louis, MO
2018, Horizon: Contemporary Landscapes, Arts Center for the Bluegrass, Danville, KY
2016, Art Comes Alive, purchase award, Art Design Company, Cincinnati, OH
2016, Horizon: Contemporary Landscapes, Arts Center for the Bluegrass, Danville, KY
RESIDENCIES
2020, Stay Home Gallery, Paris, TN
2019, Rockvale Writers’ Colony, Rockvale, TN
EDUCATION
2014, American Montessori Society, 3-6 Certification
2014, Montessori Educational Institute of North America, Creative Curriculum Development, Jackson, TN
2012, B.A. in English, Elementary Education and Painting from Belmont University, Nashville, TN