Ash Evans is an artist who specializes in colorful fantasy art, including original paintings, pins, and her signature Mewnicorns, adorable rainbow plush unicorn kitties! I was super excited to find out she’s running a Kickstarter for the next phase of the mewnicorn plush– a pastel rainbow cat! Keep reading to get to know Ash and be sure to check out the mewnicorn campaign!

First, can you tell us a little about yourself?

I’m an artist and designer currently living outside of Baltimore MD. I love painting but have a passion for designing products like toys, enamel pins etc. I love the manufacturing process and working with others to get my ideas realized on a large scale. I do both digital and mixed media paintings and have a lot of fun working with both. I love bright colors and glowing elements so I put them in as many paintings as I can get away with. I love sculpting and want to start getting into 3d modeling. Since my hobby became my full time career I try to expand my interests into other things to add balance back into my life. I like to mix it up and try new things so I am trying gardening for the first time this year.

I love your use of bright colors and whimsical designs. Where do you draw inspiration?

Right now in a pandemic it is harder for me to do to be honest. I’d go out into life and see art and films etc whenever I needed a boost. I draw from everything they see because our brains are just wired to observe and collect images and experiences. I have always loved bright colors and wanted to make very saturated pieces. I greatly overuse cyan and magenta and my printer hates me for it. My cats do hilarious things and will spark a lot of ideas. Childhood toys, the color of a piece of candy, it could be anything any given day. The one thing all successful artists do is continue to work without it. One of the benefits of art school is you are there in a studio working if you are inspired or not and that’s a super valuable lesson. Drawing from that has been invaluable during times of stress and when I just don’t feel like creating. I love experimenting with other mediums as well and through trial and error sometimes the most wonderful things come out of that.

I also really love that so much of your art includes cats! Do you have kitties, or other reasons for including them in your art?

Early in my career I focused more on fantasy animals like dragons and unicorns. I do enjoy those themes and hope to revisit them more in the future. I love animals so they have always been featured in my work. Cats sort of happened by accident and are by far my best selling pieces. Since I make my sole income off of art you have to go with what sells. I absolutely love cats so I am Ok with that! I have 4 rescue cats. 3 are black because they are the least adopted ranging in ages from 7 months to 16 years. Edgar Allan Pudd, Ichabod, Calcifer and Loki. I also have a chihuahua named Pixel, a chinchilla named Chewbacca and a husband. I am not sure if he counts as a pet or not but he gets cranky if I don’t walk him, too. I was a vet tech for many years and have always loved animals so we have accumulated a lot of waifs and strays over the years. I started featuring black cats in my work when I realized they are the most overlooked and least adopted and I want to draw attention to that. Black cats are amazing and I will always have one in my home.

What are you most excited to be working on right now?

Right now I am planning on a solo art exhibition online on my website for the summer. I am calling it a postcard show since all the works will be drawn/painted on 100 postcards. Each one is a different Pantone color which will be fun and challenging. I think it was inspired by my lack of travel. I can’t go anywhere to send postcards from but I can take other people places in my work with these cards. The buyers will have the back of the card addressed to them with the title and a little bit about how I was feeling when I made the piece they purchased. I am hoping to have these finished by June. I can’t get out to conventions this year but I want to find a way to still connect to the people who love my work and miss seeing me. I miss you all too!

Here at Geek Girl Pen Pals, we pair folks to send snail mail based on their “geek loves” or the things they geek out about. What are your top 5 geek loves?

This is going to be hard because I like too many things and my overflowing collections are basically everywhere. If you are a minimalist never come to my house lol.

  1. My first ever obsession was Hello Kitty and Sanrio things. I have quite the collection that I’ve amassed over more than 30 years. I’ve met Kitty Mama and have items in my collection that are older than me! Kawaii things in general have always thrilled me. I have way too many plush toys. Current obsession is Disney Nuimos.
  2. I am a super Tolkien nerd. I believe I’ve read everything he’s ever written and at one point knew too much elvish to be considered a normal human being. I do love the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings the most and am looking forward to the new series coming out on Amazon.
  3. I’m big into gaming, both video and TCG. Last year I was planning to compete in the Pokemon Tournaments until the pandemic cancelled them. I was going to enter in both the TCG and video games and hope to again when they open back up to competition safely. My husband and I both attended the world championships in Washington DC in 2019. What I play changes but like many folks I have been super into Animal Crossing New Horizons. I’ve been playing since day one and love my island. Maybe a little too much. I got so attached to my villagers my husband had to get his own island for some of my friends to retire to.
  4. I love anime and will watch a wide variety of it. All time favorites have to be Sailor Moon, Fruits Basket and Death Note. I’m currently rewatching the entire Inyuasha series.
  5. I loved some of the Star Wars series and really liked the Mandalorian. I’m very much looking forward to some of the new streaming series in that universe. One of my goals in life is to own a life sized working R2 unit. If this pandemic persists it might be a good project for myself and my engineer husband to work on together. Yes, it will absolutely have a bar cart attachment.

We’re packing snacks for a picnic! What’s your favorite snack?

French Macarons are my absolute favorite!

Where can we find you online?

I do have some places where you can keep up with my art regularly on social media too!

Thanks so much to Ash for chatting with us today! Be sure to check out her Kickstarter ASAP for some beautiful mewnicorns and mewnicorn kittens before March 25, 2021!