Ashton Ludden is an artist, educator, and community organizer with specialization in hand-engraving, printmaking, and sign painting. Her artwork emphasizes a focus on our relationship to wildlife and wild spaces. She studied Engraving Arts and Printmaking at Emporia State University receiving her BFA in 2009 and her MFA in Printmaking from the University of Tennessee in 2013.
Ludden is the founder, co-owner, director, and active artist of Relay Ridge Collaborative Artist Space in north Knoxville, which has grown into a rich artist community offering local artists affordable private studios, an artist-operated gallery, and a community printshop for printmakers needing access to equipment and space.
She also leads Knoxville’s new printmakers support group, Printmakers Anonymous, which entices and invites all print-lovers and print-curious to meet once a month to nerd out about printmaking, show-n-tell prints, talk shop, and simply gather together with a common interest. This open, casual group stems from the tradition of exchange – whether in ideas or prints – and the community that naturally grows out of a printmaking environment.
Outside of her studio practice and running RR, she teaches printmaking part-time at Knoxville Community School of the Arts, a non-profit offering free art classes to low income families. Ludden also teaches at TN Governor’s School for the Arts, Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, Relay Ridge, and is currently teaching screenprinting at the University of Tennessee. She is also the 2D Artist Coordinator for the Spring Pentaculum Artist Residency at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts .
When she’s not in her studio or tricking others into liking printmaking, you’ll likely find her hiking with her dogs in the Cumberland Plateau, laughing with her partner Andrew, or napping with her cat in the sun.
Instagram: @ashton_ludden