Ashley Pridmore is drawn to the minutiae of nature. Whether it’s the texture of a wasp’s nest or the ribbing of a flower petal, the New Orleans–based sculptor finds beauty in the complexities of the environment. “Making is my way of processing—and communicating with—the world around me,” she tells Business of Home. “It’s an instinctive response to what I notice, what I love and what holds my attention.”
Growing up in a small town in New York’s Finger Lakes region, Pridmore was an avid collector of branches, rocks and bones. She began experimenting with clay and jewelry-making as a child. Her father taught her how to weld metal when she was a teenager, and in college, she studied sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University. “Working three-dimensionally has always come naturally,” she says.
In 2018, she opened a private studio in New Orleans with a focus on civic sculptures and local site-specific installations. One of her first major projects was born of a grant from The Helis Foundation—a private art fund working in partnership with the city’s Department of Parks and Parkways and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art—and resulted in Saint Kampos, an 8-foot-tall bronze seahorse installed in the central business district. “My earliest designs, like my work today, were rooted in natural motifs,” she says. “Whether I’m making fine art or functional objects, the forms always come back to things I find beautiful, delicate and structurally intriguing in the natural world.”
Pridmore’s work is grounded in natural materials, and often includes found objects such as leaves and seedpods. Once she finds a piece she’s interested in, she uses everything from epoxy clay to plaster, bronze and papier-mâché to build small assemblages that explore how the different forms relate to one another. “I like letting ideas develop organically, without forcing them into a timeline,” she says.
The artist can spend hours sculpting miniature designs with tiny brushes and dental picks, or welding and fabricating large-scale forms with heavy equipment. “My practice spans from the most delicate handwork to industrial-sized tools,” she says.
In addition to her fine artwork, Pridmore designs a selection of functional handmade pieces for Reed Smythe & Company, including a resin tulipiere inspired by traditional Dutch vases, as well as polished bronze trinket dishes, hanging hooks and oyster-shucking knives. “I sculpt many of these pieces by hand in epoxy clay before casting, paying close attention to ergonomics and tactility,” she says. “Much of my work is too delicate to touch, so being able to think about how an object feels when held is deeply satisfying.”
Currently hard at work on a large outdoor sculpture for the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans, near the site of a major levee breach during Hurricane Katrina, Pridmore says the design will represent a massive bald cypress tree that withstands floodwaters without falling or dying. “The sculpture merges the form of a bald cypress with that of a black mangrove: a reflection on resilience, climate change and shoreline erosion,” she explains. “The sculpture’s exposed roots transform from cypress into mangrove forms, symbolizing adaptation and survival.”
She also plans to design more decor objects in the future—just don’t press her for a launch date. “I work slowly, and I value periods of learning, reflection, and material exploration,” she says. “I like to get lost in small details, to give care to every surface and every touch. That’s the rhythm my work is made in.”
