Ashley Fitzgerald Williams is a mixed media collage artist based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama whose work is rooted in found imagery and inherited history. Her love of analog collage began because she was tired of staring at screens, but it deepened into obsession when she inherited her great-grandmother’s postcard collection. That archive spanned decades of domestic and international travel, some postcards mailed and some still pristine, each serving as a window into a different snapshot in time. One obsession fed another: she quickly amassed a hoard of vintage magazines and books, savoring the old advertisements and news stories and the thrill of finding exactly the right image.

Ashley holds a Bachelor of Arts in Advertising with a minor in Studio Art from The University of Alabama, and works as an arts administrator while maintaining an active studio practice.

When she’s not at work or in the studio, she enjoys volunteering with her local roller derby league, gardening, and attending any and all LGBTQ+ pride events in the state.

About my work:

What started with inherited postcards has expanded into an entire body of work and an ongoing fascination with nostalgia and visual storytelling. My collages are often humorous and colorful, because our political and media landscape in the United States often feels like a firehose of absurdity. Cutting everything apart to create something new is part of my resistance practice: a way to reclaim my brain from the algorithms and put the pieces back together on my own terms, with joy and humor at the forefront. My great-grandmother sent postcards as evidence of her humanity — I was here, I saw this, and I thought of you. I make collages for the same reason.