Every first Friday of every month, a gathering of artists, musicians, creative types, foodies and simply culture enthusiasts come together to share, enjoy and show off their talents. On Sept. 6, Park University Senior Ashly Meek showcased her fifth exhibit “300 miles of Oz” at Bespoke Salon in the Crossroads district.
First Fridays is always a busy affair, people walking in and out of the salon to view Meek’s work, as well as to partake in the drinking in the backroom.
Meek sold at least two photographs in the first hour of the gallery opening. On average there around 50-150 coming in through the salon’s doors. At Meek’s last exhibit on First Fridays, she sold seven out of twenty of her photographs.
Meek’s inspiration comes from life and death as well as history and beauty. All of her photographs at the exhibit show the decay yet the beauty of the world outside.
“Almost all of these (photographs) are life and death, a lot of this are examples of how the world changes.” Meek says, “How we all are affected by it (changing).”
Meek is a senior organizational communication major and will be graduating either before or by summer 2014. She plans to continue photographing the world around her throughout her remaining coursework but upon graduation she will most likely go into event planning and promoting.
“I throw some fun parties when I can,” Meek said.
She has always had an eye for objects probably because of her photographic mind. She said she could just remember things and locations like a drop of a hat. “I’ve always been obsessed with photography, since I was about four year old.” Meek said, “I use to tell my grandmother how to get to places when I was a child.”
Meek is self-taught for the most part and she did take a few classes in high school but she didn’t go to art school or take any specialized photography classes.
When she first moved to Kansas City, a friend took her on an adventure. They traveled around the city going to the West Bottoms, heading into abandon warehouses and buildings as well as venturing to Prospect Avenue. They stayed up until the early hours of the morning driving around and taking photos of the sun rising on the bridges.
It was at this moment that Meek realized that just because she came from a small Kansas town where art isn’t promoted did not mean she had to partake in just a nine to five mundane job but she could follow her passion of photography.
“It helped me realize that I was a little bit good at it (photography),” Meek said. “I think of myself as humble. And I feel that that’s what a lot of artist forget when they have galleries and they try to be ‘somebody’. I try to show people how I see. If you want to display your work, don’t be afraid, because of that ‘mentality’ that comes with the art world.”
Whether one is traveling through the Land of Oz or watching a sun rise over a bridge, Meek’s work strikes a nerve with viewers.
Meek’s work can be viewed from her Facebook account www.facebook.com/bluashphotography or purchased through her Etsy account that is linked.
