Ashley Lukashevsky

Design Sponge: Combining Art + Social Justice with Ashley Lukashevsky

• Ever since I was a child, I loved to draw and paint women whose features were different from my own. Yet I would draw what I saw in magazines – bodies that were stick-thin and “perfectly” proportioned. Once I really started to love and embrace my own body, I began to draw women and non-binary people of all forms and sizes. I don’t feel the need to recreate images of skinny white women that we have been fed our entire lives. I would rather spend my time celebrating femmes who are not typically depicted and should be recognized.

• After the election, I had so much pent up anger and frustration that I started to pour that into my drawing book. I had a feeling that it would resonate with my peers, so I started to post them onto my Instagram page. It started to catalyze my outspokenness and I continued to share what I was feeling in the hope that it would help others to process and feel less alone in the face of such unrelenting bigotry. I knew that in this political moment, like countless times before in American history, we need people to be fired up stand up for our own rights and the rights of those in communities who are being attacked.

The Cut: The Artist Who Wants You to Know That Everyone’s Going Through Something: Ashley Lukashevsky on burnout and making political art

• While identity is at the core of so much of her work, Ashley is still navigating what it means to her on a personal level. “I’m still processing it and I’m still figuring out what exactly [being mixed-race] means to me.”

It's Nice That: Ashley Lukashevsky on inspiring political resistance through illustration

• Through her Instagram, Ashley rallies people to take their activism offline through calling their elected officials, joining physical demonstrations and following important activists who are on the ground

Brit+Co: This Artist Is Hell-Bent on Bringing down the Patriarchy, One Illustration at a Time

• When I was younger, I was always creating things and playing around with artistic mediums — but I had no idea that there were actual career opportunities in visual arts. I had no exposure to what an artistic career looked like and didn’t see any artists around me, so I didn’t even know that people could create art for their careers. I’ve always been pretty politically active — starting from the 5th grade, I was Photoshopping my own anti-Bush stickers, but I certainly didn’t foresee how I would merge two of my passions.

LA Weekly: THE L.A. ILLUSTRATOR BEHIND THIS VIRAL DACA PROTEST ART WANTS MORE THAN "LIKES"

• Her illustrations often include information on how to take action, in the hopes of inspiring others. That can be a website with more information, a number to text so that faxes will be sent to representatives or an address for an upcoming protest.